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PICTORIAL 



HISTORY OF MEXICO 






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AND THE 



MEXICAN WAR: 



COMPRISING AN ACCOUNT OF THE 



ANCIENT AZTEC EMPIRE, THE CONQUEST BY CORTES, MEXICO 

UNDER THE SPANIARDS, THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION, THE 

REPUBLIC, THE TEXAN WAR, AND THE RECENT 

WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES. 



BY JOHN FROST, LL. D. 

AUTHOR OP PICTORIAL HISTORT OP THE "WORLD, PICTORIAL HISTORT OP THS 
UNITED STATES, BOOK. Op THE ARMY, BOOK OF THE NAVT, &C. &C. 



EMBELLISHED WITH FIVE HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS, FROM DESIGNS OF W. CROOME AND OTHER 
DISTINGUISHED ARTISTS. 







PHILADELPHIA: 

CHARLES DESILVEE, 

No. 1229 CHESTNUT STREET, 
BALTIMORE, MD.: CUSHINGS & BAILEY. .PITTSBURG, PA.: JOHN P. HUNT. 

1862. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, bi 

JOHN FROST, 

In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the Uniti 
States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



Printed by Smith and Peters. 



L BvT° fCOn ^e 
J* transfer f rota 

St *te Depart^ 



«U. 



MAY 



9 igaj 







The recent war between the United States and Mexico 
has awakened in the people of the former country a degree 
of interest in the history and condition of the latter, which 
it never possessed before. The reading public are not satis- 
fied with the accounts of the war which have been pub- 
lished, but evince an anxiety to learn something of the 
whole antecedent history of the sister republic. To satisfy 
this inquiry the following work has been written. 

The account of Ancient Mexico, and of the Conquest, is 
founded on the histories of Bernal Diaz, Solis, and other 
Spanish writers, and the learned and eloquent History of 
the Conquest, by our accomplished countryman, Mr. 
Prescott. From equally authentic and reliable authentic i 
are drawn the facts comprised in the history, of the Revo 
lution, Mexico under the Spaniards, the Republic under :t$ 
successive presidents, and the Texan war. 

In composing the narrative of the recent war between 
Mexico and the United States, which forms the largest and 
most important part of the work, recourse has been had to 
a 2 ..,, (iii) 



iv PREFACE. 

official authorities chiefly ; the despatches of the general 
officers, and the reports of their subordinates being con- 
sidered the most reliable sources of information ; although 
the author has had opportunity of considerable personal 
intercourse with officers of rank who have taken an active 
and conspicuous part in the contest. 

In embellishing the work, the author has had the advan- 
tage of Mr. Croome's invaluable services ; and he is in- 
debted to Messrs. Root, Simons, Collins, Butler, Gunn & 
England, and Van Loan, for daguerreotype portraits of 
officers ; by which means a degree of authenticity in this 
department has been attained, which was out of the ques- 
tion before the invention of this important art. 

It is certainly a gratifying task to any patriotic Ameri- 
can writer to record the events of the recent war with the 
Mexican Republic. Such a glorious career of successful 
valour seldom presents itself to the notice of the historian. 
In many respects this contest is unparalleled in the annals 
of the world's affairs ; and it will for ever hold a conspicu- 
ous place on that pillar of glory where the deeds of Ameri- 
can freemen are emblazoned for the admiration of mankind. 




CONTENTS. 



*+-o— 



CHAPTER I. 

Geographical Outlixe of Mexico, 13 

CHAPTER II. 

The Aztec Empire befoiie the Cox q.uest, 27 

CHAPTER III. 

Maxxers, Customs, axd Social Coxditiox of the Aztecs, 35 

CHAPTER IV. 

Axciext Moxumexts of Mexico, 48 

CHAPTER V. 

History of the Coxivuest bt Cortes, 8J 

CHAPTER VI. 

Mexico tjxder the Spaxiards, 125 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Mexicax Revolutiox , , 143 

(v) 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

HlSTOHT OF THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC, , 16rf 

CHAPTER IX. 

Causes of the Mexican Wah, 178 

CHAPTER X. 

Opening of the Campaign on the Rio Grande. Siege of Fort Brown, 194 

CHAPTER XI. 

Battle of Palo Alto, 222 

CHAPTER XII. 

B.LTTLE OF ReSACA DE LA PALMA, 232 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Bahita and Matamohas captured, 246 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Events subsequent to the Capture of Mata^ioras 254 

CHAPTER XV. 

March to Monterey, 269 

CHAPTER XVI, 

Storming of Federation and Independence Hills, 278 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Storming of Monterey, 298 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Capitulation of Monterey, 321 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Operations subsequent to the Capture of Monterey, 332 

CHAPTER XX. 

March of General Wool to Monclova, 348 



CONTENTS. Vll 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Santa Anna's March to Buena Vista. Battle Ground and Skirmish 
op February 22d, 359 

CHAPTER XXII 

Battle of Buena Vista, 367 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Conquest of Califobnia and New Mexico, 388 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Siegb of Veba Cbuz, 465 

CHAPTER XXV. 

March towards the Capital, and Battle of Cebbo Gordo, 479 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Guebbilla Warfare, 493 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

March to the Capital, and Battles of Contrebas and Chubtjbttsco. . 501 

CHAPTER XXVin. 

The Armistice, 542 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Stobming of Molino del Ret, 551 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Storming of Chapultepec, 563 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Storming of San Cosme and Belen Gates, 576 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Entrance into the Capital, 591 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Siege of Puebla, „ „ . . . 597 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Battles or Huamantla and Atlixco, , 603 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

Capture of Guaymas, and Movements ot the Guerrillas, 610 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Operations in California and New Mexico, „ 621 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Close of the War, , „ 631 




ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Ornamental Headpiece, • • ~—~ • • • ►»•» ~ •— • 

Cofre de Perote, - * 

Termination of the Aqueduct in the City of Mexico, - 

Volcanoes as seen from Tacubaya, - 

Mexican Muleteers, ~ ~~ ~~- »....— 

Mexican Cavalry at a Pulque Shop, between San Martin and Puebla,. 

Indian Hut, in the Tierra Caliente, • •••- 

The Mexican Coat of Arms, 

Nezahualcoytl — — - 

Bath of Montezuma, 

Nezahualpilli, 

Ahuitzotl, 



Sculptured Stone in Monte of Mapilca, 

Pyramid of Cholula, ** 

Great Teocalli, or Temple of Mexico. From an old print,--" — 

The ordinary Human Sacrifice, 

Gladiatorial Sacrifice, ~~ ~ •■ 

Ancient Mexican Manuscript, - — ■»••• 

Great Calendar Stone, »......«...«■»■ ►.♦»...». 

Interior of a Modern Mexican House, ~...»... ~.» ~... 

Ornamental Headpiece, - »•••»•• 

Ruins of Xochicalco, • • — »• • • • » — .... — ... — ....... 

Pyramids of San Juan, Teotihuacan, .•• — »••... 

Ancient Aqueduct, leading from the Mountains of the hill of Tezcosingo, 

Ruins of Quemada, — — - » •»•• ~-*» 

Temple at Tusapan, »—• .»-•»..•*»» »...,.....— ....»....—... 

Pyramid of Papantla, ....-—..» ~..~..~........ .— 

Pyramid of Misantla, »- 

Monument at Copan,..—— - -• — 

Ruins of Zayi, — — ~ -•- »..««». 

Ruins of TJxmal, — • • • — • • • - •» - 

Landing of Cortes at Vera Cruz, • ~- 

Bartholomew de Olmedo, ••••» — - 

Diego de Ordaz, - 

Teuhtlile, - 



Massacre at Cholula, 

Cortes advancing to the City of Mexico, ■ 

Montezuma, ■» - 

Defeat of Narvaez, — 

Cuitlahua, 



Escobar, 

Cortes, 

Christoval de Olid,. ■ 
Velasquez de Leon, 
Sandoval, 



Guatimozin. 

Ixtlilxochitl, * 

Jorge de Alvarado, 

Pedro de Alvarado, 

Charles V. -•• 

Ornamental Tailpiece, 

Ornamental Headpiece, ••••• 
Fattier Martin, of Valentia, ■ 
Las Casas, 



Defeat of Quiches by Alvarado, 

Celebration of the Founding of St. Jago,.-- 

Pizarro, • • • • 

Priests welcoming the arrival of Soldiers, 

Marco de Nizza, 

Mexican Gentlemen, 

Hidalgo, -«• •• — 

Calleja, — 

Leonardo Bravo, 



13 
15 

17 
18 
22 
26 
27 
29 
30 
32 
33 
34 
35 
38 
40 
42 
43 
44 
46 
47 
48 
50 
52 
55 
59 
67 
68 
69 
73 
79 
80 
81 
84 
85 
87 
92 
93 
94 
102 
104 
105 
106 
107 
108 
110 
114 
115 
118 
120 
123 
124 
126 
127 
129 
131 
132 
133 
134 
135 
147 
148 
152 
156 



(ix) 



X ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Death of Morelos, - ~ 158 

Mina, - 160 

liurbide, - - — — — - • • • •— 161 

Novella, — ...., I63 

Ornamental Tailpiece, — — » - . 164 

General Bustamente, • •••• - 165 

Pedraza, - 166 

Fall of the Alamo, 168 

Ge neral Cos, 169 

Mexia, •- 171 

Santiago I man,- ••« - 172 

General Rivas, 173 

Paredes, 174 

Santa Anna, 176 

Santmanet, - 177 

Ornamental Tailpiece, - 177 

Ornamental Headpiece, 178 

Bocanegra, - 181 

Corpus Christi, ....» 1.S7 

Drilling raw Recruits, 188 

Point Isabel, 191 

Mexican Lancer, - 193 

City of Matamoras, 194 

Colonel Cross, 198 

Captain Thornton's skirmish with the Mexicans, 208 

American Troops landing at Point Isabel, 210 

Captain Walker's Expedition, - 213 

Major Brown mortally wounded, •- — - 219 

Fort Brown, 221 

Ornamental Headpiece, - 222 

Soldiers Drinking, 224 

Battle of Palo Alto, — 227 

Repulse of the Mexican Cavalry at Palo Alto, - 229 

Major Ringgold, - 231 

Ornamental Headpiece, 232 

Plan of the Battle-grounds of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, - 234 

Second Charge of Captain May, - 238 

Flag of the Tampico Battalion, 239 

Americans entering Arista's Camp, 240 

Rout of the Mexicans, 241 

Death of Ringgold, ~ 245 

Ornamental Headpiece, — - 246 

Public Square, Matamoras, - 251 

Mexicans in their Holiday Attire, 252 

General Gaines, ■» 254 

Colonel Garland, • 25G 

General Roger Jones, - -.... 259 

General Taylor writing to the War Department, 261 

Hon. W. L. Marcy, Secretary of War, 263 

Camargo, looking North, 266 

Grand Plaza, Camargo, — - 267 

Ornamental Tailpiece, 268 

Ornamental Headpiece, — - *• — ....» 263 

Captain McCulloch, 272 

Advance of the Americans to Marin, -•— 275 

Camp Kitchen, -- 277 

Monte re y, « - - • - * • «r 278 

Map of Monterey, - 281 

View ofthe Bishop's Palace, Monterey, * *•* 285 

Cavalry Action on the Morning of September 21st, - ■- - 289 

Colonel Hays, - 294 

Worth at Monterey, - 927 

Monterey from the Bishop's Palace, —~~. ~ 298 

Storming of Fort Teneria, » ~— ~ 301 

General Butler, — 303 

Colonel Watson, — • - 305 

General Butler wounded, 306 

Colonel Jefferson Davis, ■— - 310 

Storming of Monterey, ••••• - 313 

Contest in the Streets of Monterey, 317 

Ornamental Headpiece, 321 

General Worth, — 327 

Herdsmen of Monterey, - - 331 

Ornamental Headpiece, - 332 

President Polk, 333 

Colonel May, 335 

Saltillo, - 340 

Victoria and Tula Pass, 341 

General Taylor taking leave ofthe Soldiers, 343 

McCulloch examining a Mexican Deserter, 345 

Captain Daniel Drake Henrie, 346 

Ornamental Tailpiece, - • 347 

General Wool, 348 

General Wool's March to Monclova, 351 



ILLUSTRATIONS. XI 

A Texas Ranger, 556 

General Taylor, 358 

Headpiece, General Taylor, ••••■•- 359 

Santa Anna, 361 

Ornamental Tailpiece, 366 

Ornamental Headpiece, 367 

Plan of the Battle of Buena Vista, 368 

Repulse of the Mexican cavalry at Buena Vista, 371 

Davis's Infantry repulsing the Mexican Cavalry, 374 

Death of Colonel Yell, 376 

Major Bliss, 379 

General Taylor and Captain Bragg at Buena Vista, 380 

Death of Colonel Clay, - 381 

Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Clay, Jr., • 382 

Mexicans killing the wounded at Buena Vista, 387 

Mexican Indians, 388 

Pearl Divers, — 389 

San Francisco, California, 391 

Santa Barbara, 392 

San Carlos de Monterey, - 393 

Anchorage at Yerba Buena, — -»— 305 

Dragoons exercising, 400 

Bent's Fort, - 401 

Santa Fe, New Mexico, - 407 

Encampment near Valentia, - 411 

Major Sumner, ~ 412 

Encampment at Fray Christobal, 414 

Traders, 415 

General Kearny, ...•- - - » -• 416 

Battle of Bracito, »- 418 

Colonel Benton, 422 

Battle of Sacramento, 427 

Colonel Mitchell bearing off the Mexican Standard, 429 

Capture of Monterey, 437 

Capture of Yerba Buena, - 438 

Monterey, Upper California, 441 

Colonel Fremont, 444 

Christopher Carson, 445 

Battle of San Pasqual, 452 

Battle of San Gabriel, 454 

Presidio of San Francisco. Encampment of the New York Volunteers, 456 

Indian atrocities in New Mexico, 460 

Ornamental Tailpiece, 464 

Ornamental Headpiece, ..." - » 465 

Tarn p ico, 466 

Commodore Conner, 467 

General Scott going on board the Commodore's Ship, — • 469 

Vera Cruz, ~ 471 

Plan of Vera Cruz and San Juan de Ulloa, 472 

Colonel Totten, - - 474 

Colonel Harney's Dragoon Fight,- ...~ ~- — •- 476 

Lieutenant Hunter, — - — .....- 477 

Ornamental Tailpiece, •.«... — - 478 

Ornamental Headpiece, —• * 479 

General Twiggs, ...... ~-....~ ~ 480 

General Pillow, ■•• 481 

Plan of the Battle of Cerro Gordo, — - - 482 

General Twiggs at Cerro Gordo, ...— «- - 484 

General Scott complimenting Colonel Harney, • »•• — 485 

General Shields wounded, * 487 

Colonel Baker, - - 488 

Colonel Hitchcock, ~- - 489 

Tuspan, 490 

Puebla, ~ - 491 

Ornamental Headpiece, 493 

National Bridge, - -r 494 

Mexican Cavalry menacing a Train of Wagons, ••••- 495 

Captain Duperu's Dragoons attacking the Guerrillas, - 498 

Ornamental Tailpiece, 500 

Ornamental Headpiece, — • 501 

City of Mexico, from the Convent of San Cosme, - 503 

Death of Captain Thornton, 505 

Plan of the Battles of Contreras and Churubusco, 506 

General Persifor F. Smith, 508 

Storming of Contreras, 513 

General Shields, 516 

General Cadwalader, » 518 

Storming of Churubusco, 532 

Assistant Adjutant-General Mackall, 536 

Guerrillas, 538 

Colonel Burnett, 539 

Ornamental Tailpiece, 541 

N ichol as P . Trist, 542 

General Quitman, •— 54S 



Xll 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Ornamental Tailpiece, 549 

Man of the Battle of Molino del Rey, 550 

Ornamental Headpiece, 551 

Molino del Rey — Cliapultepec in the distance, 552 

Storming of Molino del Rey, 656 

Ornamental Tailpiece, 561 

1'lan of the Storming of Cliapultepec, 562 

Mexican Costumes, 563 

Cliapultepec, 5CT 

Colonel Harney. 570 

Colonel Seymour, 571 

Storming of Cliapultepec, 572 

Major Twiggs, 573 

Ornamental Tailpiece, 575 

Mexican Gentlemen, 576 

General Scott, 577 

General Scott and Staff, 579 

Routes of Worth's and Quitman's Columns from Chapultepec to the San Cosme and Belen Gates 580 

Ornamental Tailpiece, 590 

Ornamental Headpiece, • 591 

Grand Plaza in the City of Mexico, • 592 

City of Mexico. Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl in the distance, 593 

Ornamental Tailpiece, 596 

Western part of Puebla de los Angeles, 597 

Colonel Childs, 599 

Mexican Hut, i 602 

Ornamental Headpiece, 603 

Major Iturbide, 606 

Captain Walker, 607 

Ornamental Tailpiece, 609 

A Guerrilla, 610 

Capture of Guaymas, 611 

General Gushing, 612 

General Towson, 614 

General Patterson, 615 

Colonel Bankhead, 619 

Ornamental Tailpiece, 620 

Ornamental Headpiece, »■ •-•■ - 621 

Ornamental Tailpiece, - 630 

Ornamental Headpiece, 631 





CHAPTER I. 



GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE OF MEXICO. 




HE line of separation between Mexico and 
Guatimala is extremely irregular, commenc- 
ing on the east side with the river Sarstoon, 
which it follows to its source, whence it 
runs north to north latitude 17° 30' and then 
takes a course west and south-west until it 
reaches latitude 15° 45', when it changes its 
direction to north-east. On the west and 
south-west the Pacific washes its shores, 
while its boundaries on the north and west are the United States and 
the Gulf of Mexico. 

The disorders of the government, and the lawless state of the 
population, have hitherto prevented our acquiring any thing like an 
accurate account of the country or its population ; and, until very 
recently, the accounts of Baron Humboldt were the only reliable 
sources of information respecting it. The portion lying south of the 
Tropic of Cancer, is by far the most rich and populous, but the 
B (13^ 



14 GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 

numbers of the population decrease as we go northward, some of 
the so called states of the republic being occupied almost wholly by 
unsubdued savages. Mexico differs from almost all other countries 
in the great variety of its climate, a feature arising not so much 
from its extent in latitude as from the diversity of its surface. The 
northern extension of the Andes, if the Cordilleras may so be called, 
enters the country on the south, and diverges, following the line 
of the coasts on each side of the country. The eastern arm finally 
subsides into the great plains of Texas, but the other preserves its 
character until it joins with the Rocky Mountains in the United 
States. Between these two arms of the Cordilleras is comprised an 
immense central table-land, nearly three-fifths of the whole surface 
of the republic, known as the Plateau of Anahuac. The elevation 
of this plateau, varying from six thousand to eight thousand feet 
above the level of the sea, causes it to have a temperate climate, 
notwithstanding that a considerable portion of it is within the tro- 
pics. The surface of this table-land is diversified by some very high 
mountains, and a few well-defined ridges subdivide it into smaller 
plateaus, to which various names have been given. It is not tra- 
versed by many valleys, however, and a road, fourteen hundred 
miles in length, connects the capital with the city of Santa Fe, with 
little deviation from a level. The most remarkable tract in the Pla- 
teau of Anahuac, is the plain in which the capital is situated, known 
as the Plain of Tenochtitlan. This plain is fifty-five miles long and 
thirty-five broad, containing an area of seventeen hundred square 
miles, surrounded with porphyritic and basaltic rocks. One hundred 
and sixty square miles of it are covered with water, which is de- 
posited in five principal lakes, situated on different levels. South- 
eastward^ from the city is the Lake of Chalco ; north- westwardly, that 
of Tezcuco, and north of that, those of San Christoval and Zumpango. 
The largest of these lakes is that of Tezcuco, which covers an area 
of seventy square miles, and has an elevation but three feet lower 
than the great Square of Mexico. The lakes San Christoval, Chalco, 
and Tonanitla, are five feet higher than Tezcuco, while Zumpango, 
the smallest of all, has a level thirty feet higher than that of Tez- 
cuco. The head of water which could be poured over the city by 
these lakes may be readily perceived. In 1629, the city of Mexico 
was almost wholly inundated, and preparations were being made for 
the foundation of a new capital, when an earthquake fortunately drew 
off the excess of water. An immense artificial canal, the Desague of 
Huchuetoga, was then commenced, for the purpose of draining these 
lakes, but it was not finished until the year 1789. The length of 
the cut is about twelve miles, it is one hundred and fifty feet deep, 



GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 



17 




Termination of the Aqueduct in the City of Mexico. 

and three hundred wide, and it discharges the waters of the valley 
into the river Panuco, three hundred feet below the level of the Lake 
Zumpango. This canal and the beautiful aqueducts with which the 
city of Mexico is supplied with water, the people owe to the energy 
of the Spanish government, and they are almost the only works of this 
kind in the country. Earthquakes are frequent in Mexico, but they 
seldom do any mischief, a remark which will also apply to the many 
volcanoes in the country. On the south-east side of the plain of 
Tenochtitlan, those of Popocatepetl, seventeen thousand seven hun- 
dred and sixteen feet, Iztaccihuatl fifteen thousand seven hundred 
feet, Orizaba seventeen thousand three hundred and eighty feet, and 
the Cofre de Perote thirteen thousand four hundred and sixteen feet 
above the level of the sea, meet the eye, while other mountains and 
volcanoes, whose smoking craters might be a cause of continual ap- 
prehension, bound the horizon on other sides. The purity of the 
atmosphere has an astonishing tendency to diminish apparent dis- 
tances, and nowhere does this produce a more remarkable effect 
than in the city of Mexico. Most of the mountains surrounding the 
valley are at least fifteen miles distant ; yet on looking down any of 
the streets of the city, it appears to be terminated by a mass of rocks, 
which are seen so distinctly, that on a clear day, all the undulations 
of the surface may be traced, and the trees and patches of different 
vegetation readily distinguished. To the south-east the view is 
bounded by the lofty Popocatepetl, higher than any mountain in 
North America except Mount St. Elias ; Iztaccihuatl, which is much 
b2 3 



18 



GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 




Volcanoes, as seen from Tacubaya. 



nearer, is two thousand feet lower, but the two stand forth proudly 
pre-eminent from any view in the valley, and strangers delighted to 
record the pleasure with which they watch the effect of the last rays 
of light playing upon the summits in the evening when all around is 
sinking into obscurity. 

The want of water occasions serious disadvantages to Mexico, the 
rivers, compared with the extent of country, being few and unimportant. 
The lakes, however, are extensive, and the Spaniards, finding that the 
only manure which the land required was water, raised many hydraulic 
constructions, at great cost, for purposes of irrigation, which the Mexi- 
cans have suffered to fall into ruin, and which will probably be allowed 
to remain so. The country produces every thing that will flourish in 
the torrid and temperate zones of good quality, yet so indolent are 
the natives, and so regardless of all attempts at systematic agriculture, 
that a single season of drought produces a famine. The rural popu- 
lation then go into the deserts in search of wild plants, and generally 
with success. The great variety of the productions is occasioned 
by the extent of the country through twenty-one degrees of latitude 
and the rapidity of the slope on either side. On the east side espe- 
cially the climates are distinctly marked by the vegetation. " On the 
ascent from Vera Cruz," says Humboldt, " climates succeed each other 




GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 19 

in layers, and the traveller passes in review in the course of two 
days, the whole scale of vegetation from the parisitic plants of the 
tropics to the pines of the arctic regions." 

>S respects climate, Mexico is divided into 
the tierras calientes, or hot regions, the tier- 
ras templadas or temperate regions and the 
tierras frias or cold regions. The first in- 
clude the low grounds on the east and west 
coast, comprising on the eastern slope the 
greater part of the states of Tamaulipas, Vera 
Cruz, Tabasco, and the peninsula of Yucatan. 
These tierras on the west are less extensive. 
The mean temperature is about 77° of Fahrenheit, and the growth of 
Ihe soil consists principally of sugar, cotton, indigo, and bananas. 
The winter on the east coast lasts from October to April, during 
which time north or north-west winds blow with great violence for 
several days together. The shores at this time are free from pesti- 
lence, but with the summer the unhealthy season begins, and 
foreigners landing on the coast have little hope of escaping the yel- 
low fever. At the height of two thousand five hundred feet above 
the sea, however, this scourge is almost wholly unknown. 

The tierras templadas extend from two thousand five hundred to 
five thousand feet of elevation, and furnish us with the Mexican oak, 
and most of the fruits and grains of Europe. The cities situated in 
these regions, of which Jalapa is one, are famous for their salubrity 
and the inexhaustible supply of fruits. Great beauty and strength 
of vegetation result from the frequent fogs and humidity of the atmo- 
sphere, which, however, are objectionable in other points of view. 

The tierras frias include all the vast plains elevated five thousand 
feet or more above the level of the sea. Here the mean temperature 
is about 64° Fahrenheit, but when the height of more than eight 
thousand feet is attained the climate is exceedingly disagreeable. 
Near Mexico, the limit of perpetual snow is twelve thousand to fifteen 
thousand feet high. In the tierras frias, the vegetation is not so 
vigorous as in the lower countries, but the climate is on the whole 
more favourable to human life. But the indolence of the natives 
prevents all exertions to raise more food than is necessary for the 
wants of a single season, and no one thinks, in times of plenty, of 
laying by a store for future contingencies, and hence when droughts 
or severe frosts occur, famine and its concomitant privations prove 
quite as destructive to life as the enemies of the coast. 

The geological features displayed by the Cordilleras are mostly 
remarkable for the non-appearance of granite, which is covered by 



20 GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 

porphyry, greenstone, amygdaloid, basalt, obsidian, and other rocks 
of igneous origin. Granite appears, however, in the chain bordering 
on the Pacific, and the port of Acapulco is said to be a natural ex- 
cavation in that species of rock. The great central Plateau of Ana- 
huac is a mass of porphyry characterized by the constant appearance 
of hornblende, and the entire absence of quartz, and it contains 
large and valuable deposits of gold and silver. These metals, however, 
occur in various rocks. Thus silver is found in syenite, in the mines 
of Comanja, in those of Guanaxuato the richest in Mexico, it is 
found in a primitive clay state, passing into talc-slate, while those 
of Real del Cardonal, Xalaca, and Lomo del Toro are situated in a 
bed of transition limestone. Humboldt says that there were in 
his time three thousand mines of silver and gold in the country, 
and before the war of independence, they produced about twenty- 
one millions of dollars in silver, and two millions in gold. Toward 
the close of the revolution, many of them were deserted ; and they 
do not yield more than half of the sums named. Mining companies 
were formed in England for the purpose of working these natural 
sources of wealth properly ; but the difficulties to be encountered 
were underrated, and the weakness of the government, the insecurity 
of property, bad roads, and imperfect mining processes have pre- 
vented their receiving any thing like a fair return for their enormous 
outlays. The Mexicans themselves understand scarcely any thing 
of the theory of mining, and their ignorance is only equalled by 
their obstinacy in adhering to inefficient and long exploded practices. 
The quantity of silver annually obtained from the mines exceeds 
that furnished by all the mines of Europe ; but the gold is only in 
proportion to the silver as one to twenty-six. A table from 1834 to 
1839 exhibits the coinage at the mints of Mexico as ranging from 
twelve to eleven millions of dollars, but it can hardly be depended 
upon. The distinguished traveller, M. Chevalier, presents a fair pic- 
ture of the state of mining in the following extract, penned in 1835. 
u How can the mines be worked with any feeling of security when 
it requires a little army to escort the smallest portion of the precious 
metals to its place of destination. Between the mine of Real del 
Monte and the village of Tezcuco is a mountain pass, where a grand 
battle was fought between the miners and the banditti of the country. 
The former were defeated, overpowered by numbers ; but not with- 
out having sold their lives as dearly as possible. The mine is now 
guarded by artillery and grape-shot, and the Englishmen employed 
there are regularly drilled in the use of the musket." 

The principal mines are in the States of Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, 
San Luis Potosi, Chihuahua, Durango, Guadalaxara, and Mexico. 



GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 21 

The ores appear to increase in richness on proceeding north ; those 
in the confines of Durango and Sonora are peculiarly rich, lie near 
the surface, and hold out a promise of wealth superior to any that 
Mexico has yet produced. Iron is found in great abundance in some 
districts, but is little worked ; copper, tin, lead, zinc, quicksilver, 
and other valuable mineral productions have been found, but with 
the exception of copper, little attention is paid to them. 

The manufactures are in a miserable state, owing to the total \t ant 
of industry and enterprise on the part of the Mexicans and their 
jealousy of the success of foreigners, and there is no prospect of any 
improvement, so long as the factories are prisons, in which those 
only are operatives who are compelled to work in them as a punish- 
ment for crime and insolvency. This lamentable state of things 
results from the selfish policy of the Spaniards, who prohibited manu- 
factures in order to preserve for themselves a market. The Spaniards 
are bad mechanicians, and no efforts of foreigners have been able to 
prevail on the Mexicans to deviate from the routine of their fore- 
fathers. In all Mexico, within a few years, there was but one manu- 
facturer of watches and optical instruments ; the use of cast iron and 
tin for culinary utensils is never attempted; and some merchants, 
who imported a few wheelbarrows for moving the bales of goods at 
the custom-house in Vera Cruz, could not induce the workmen to 
avail themselves of such an innovation. 

| HE commerce of Mexico labours under serious 
disadvantages, which would hardly appear from 
her position on the map. Though both the east 
and west coasts are washed by the oceans, 
they are inaccessible during several months 
of the year ; and when this is not the case, 
they are extremely unhealthy. Up to the 
beginning of the present century there was 
no commercial communication between 
Mexico and any other country except Spain, and that was almost 
wholly confined to the products of the mines. The ports were 
opened on the breaking out of the civil war, and the Spanish capi- 
talists retiring to Cuba and Spain, gave place to Americans and 
British, who have continued to prosecute their enterprises with \ aried 
success, according as the rancorous hatred entertained by the natives 
against all who are more prosperous than themselves permitted or 
prohibited their speculations. The policy of the government has 
been constantly to fetter the commerce of the country, fixing the 
tariff on imports at an exorbitant rate, and instead of improving or 
keeping in repair any of the roads, they are suffering Ihem to fall 




22 



GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 




Mexican Muleteers. 



into a state of total decay. This is especially the case with the 
national road, constructed at an enormous expense, by the merchants 
of Vera Cruz, under the Spaniards, across deserts and precipices to 
the summit of the upper country. During the war of independence, 
it was cut up at various points, and the Mexicans have never replaced 
a stone, filled up a trench, or cut down any of the trees which have 
been allowed to spring up and grow to a magnificent height in the 
very middle of the road. The invading army of Americans, in 
whose nature it is not found to suffer such a state of things as this 
did more for this great road in their march over it to the capita], than 
the government has done since the revolution. "In the upper 
country," says M. Chevalier, "nothing would be more easy than to 
open noble means of communication. The soil is naturally level ; 
and basaltic rocks, particularly adapted for the construction of roads,' 
are found in great abundance. But even where there are roads the' 
Mexicans make little use of them. They carry to a yet more extra- 
vagant length the inconceivable predilection of the Spanish race in 
favour of transporting their goods on the backs of animals. You 
expect to meet with carts and wagons : no such thing ; every thing 
is conveyed on the backs of mules or Indians. Troops of little con- 
sumptive donkeys bring into the city in parcels, not much bigger 
than a man's two fists, the charcoal required for the culinary opera- 
tions of the inhabitants. The price of every bulky article is thus 
increased to an enormous degree. The interior districts are as 
inaccessible as if they were cut off by an enemy's army, and famine 
frequently ensues." 

The laws of the country are said to be mild and just ; but if they 
were the contrary, it would make little difference, as nothing can be 



GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 




Robbers plundering. 

more appalling to citizens of well ordered states than the anarch) 
which has hitherto universally prevailed. The frequent changes in 
the government have prevented any measures for the restoration of 
law and order, and the whole country teems with robbers. Seldom 
did a diligence pass between Vera Cruz and Mexico without being 
stopped and robbed, and sometimes black-mail was levied more than 
once. The environs of the large cities are all infested with malefac- 
tors, who are at all times ready to perform a deed of violence. An 
English charge d'affaires was lassoed at midday on the Alameda or 
public walk of Mexico, and ministers have been several times robbed 
of their private despatches by desperadoes in the service of the 
government itself. Insurrections have become so common that we 
are almost able to give regulations for conducting them. "The first 
act is called a pronunciamiento. An officer of any rank, from a general 
down to a lieutenant, pronounces himself against the established order, 
or against an institution which displeases him, or against any thing 
else. He gets together a detachment, a company, or a regiment, as 
the case may be, and these generally, without more ado, place them- 
selves at his disposal. The second act is called the grito, or outcry, 
when two or three articles are drawn up to state the motives or 
objects of the insurrection. If the matter is of some importance the 
outcry is called a plan. At the third act the insurgents and the 
partisans of government are opposed to one another, and mutually 
examine each other's forces. At the fourth act they come to blows ; 
but, according to the improved system lately introduced, the fighting 
is carried on in a very distant, moderate, and respectful manner. 
However, one party is declared victor, and the beaten party dispro- 



24 



GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 




Mexican Inn, between Jalapa and Puebla. 

nounces. The conquerors march to Mexico, and their triumphal 
entry into the capital constitutes the fifth act of the play ; the van- 
quished, meanwhile, embark at Vera Cruz or Tampico with all the 
honours of war."* 

In a country like Mexico, the military is a favourite service from 
the high pay and privileges of the soldier, and the fact that the army 
is the only school of promotion to civic rank. The troops and their 
officers generally have no ideas whatever of honour, and are as 
faithless and treacherous as they are revengeful. 

The Roman Catholic is the established religion, but its influence 
over the white people is far less than has been represented, while 
the Indians, never thoroughly converted, are relapsing into idolatry. 
This maybe in part owing to the expulsion of the Spanish priests and 
monks during the revolution, and the substitution in their stead of 
an order of Creoles, of no particular morals. They are required to 
teach all the people to read and write, but the work is not performed, 
and the higher branches of learning can hardly be acquired in the 
country. 

The number of the population has been variously estimated, the 
most correct being probably about seven millions. The inhabitants 
are remarkable for the distinctions which characterize them into 
classes. Four grades may be enumerated, all of which are more or 
less rivals of each other. First, there are the pure Spaniards, who 
once numbered eighty thousand, but do not now exceed twenty-five 

* Chevalier. 



GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 25 

thousand, and as far as politics are concerned, are a degraded class. 
The second class is the wealthiest and most powerful part of the 
population, estimated by Chevalier to number one million three hun- 
dred thousand, known as Creoles, or native whites of European 
descent. Then come the native Mexicans, or Indians, numbering 
about three millions eight hundred thousand, and constituting the 
great body of rural labourers ; and lastly, we have the mixed castes, 
mestizoes, mulattoes, zamboes, quadroons, and quinteroons, exceed- 
ing in number one million nine hundred thousand. All distinctions 
of colour have been done away with, politically, by the revolution. 
Formerly it was one of the royal prerogatives to admit one of any 
shade to the exclusive privileges of a white, by decreeing " that he 
be deemed white." The mulattoes and zamboes reside principally in 
the low countries, the whites on the table-land. The Indians are 
divided into many tribes, speaking about twenty different languages. 
They are still characterized as they were at the time of the conquest, 
by indolence, gross superstition, and blind submission to their supe- 
riors. Their religion appears to be changed more in form than in 
any thing else, as they seem to look on the processions and cere- 
monies of the Catholic church with the same unthinking, childish 
delight that their ancestors viewed the mummeries of their idolatry. 
They are scattered over the country as labourers, artisans, workmen, 
or beggars ; the latter occupation or profession, as it might be called 
in Mexico, being as numerously patronized as either of the others. 
They would seem to be incapable of any high degree of civilization, 
but are susceptible of great improvement upon their present state. 
They are classed into two great divisions ; the Mansoes, who have a 
fixed residence, cultivate the land, and maintain amicable relations 
with the other races ; and the Bravoes, who live a wandering life, 
supported by hunting, avoiding intercourse with other tribes, and 
frequently at war with them and each other. They principally 
inhabit the northern states along the river Gila. An independent 
tribe, called Mayas, inhabits the tract between Yucatan, Tabasco, and 
Central America. 

" In the Tierras CalienUs" says Chevalier, " and even on the 
plateau, the natives are content to dwell with their families in a cabin 
of bamboo trellis-work, so slight as scarcely to hide them from the 
stranger's gaze, and to sleep either on mere mats, or at best on beds 
made of leaves and brushwood. Their dress consists simply of a 
pair of drawers or petticoat, and a serape, (a dyed woollen garment,) 
which serves for a cloak by day, and a counterpane by night. Each 
has his horse, a sorry beast, which feeds at large in the open country ; 
and a whole family of Indians is amply supplied with food by ba- 
C 4 



26 



GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 



nanas, chili, and maize, raised almost without labour, in a small 
inclosure round the hut. Labour, indeed, occupies but a trifling 
portion of the Indian's time, which is chiefly spent in drinking 
pulque, sleep, or singing to his wretched maudlins hymns in honour 
of Notre Dame de Guadalupe, and occasionally carrying votive 
chaplets to deck the altar of his village church. Thus he passes his 
life in dreamy indifference, and utterly careless of the ever-reviving 
emeutes by which the peace of Mexico is disturbed. The assassina- 
tions and robberies which the almost impotent government allows to 
be committed with impunity on the public roads, and even in sio-ht 
of the capital, are to him only matter for conversation, the theme of 
a tale or ditty. And why should he trouble himself about it ? Hav- 
ing nothing in the world but the dress in which he stands, his lance, 
spurs, and guitar, he has no fear of thieves ; nor will the poniard 
of the assassin touch him, if he himself, drunk with pulque or chino-a 
rito, do not use his own." 




Mexican Cavalry at a Pulque shop, between San Martin and Puebla. 




Indian hut, in the Tierra Caliente. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE AZTEC EMPIRE BEFORE THE CONQUEST." 



HE most conspicuous of the 
races that preceded the Aztecs 
or ancient Mexicans in the 
sovereignty of the territory of 
Anahuac, were the Toltecs. 
They advanced into the coun- 
try from the northward about 
the close of the seventh cen- 
tury, and appear to have intro- 
duced many of the most useful mechanic arts, an improved system 
of agriculture, the working of metals, and so good a style of archi- 

• As authority for this chapter we have relied entirely upon the First Book of 
Mr. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, (vol. i. pp. 3-208,) not because we 
had not at hand abundance of other material for the same purpose, but because we 
esteem Mr. Prescott the best possible authority, and his history incomparably the best 
of the ancient Mexicans and the Conquest. 

(27) 




U8 THE AZTEC EMPIRE. 

tecture that their name has become a synonyme for architect. They 
extended their sway over the whole territory of Anahuac, and after 
exercising their authority during a period of four centuries they silently 
and mysteriously disappeared. Famine, pestilence, and unsuccessful 
wars are assigned as the cause of their removal, and it is supposed, 
by some writers, that they passed into Central America, there to found 
Mitla, and the more famous Palenque, whose ruins have so well 
employed the graphic pen of our countryman, Stephens. The grounds 
of this supposition are found in the accounts given by the con- 
querors of the remains of their ancient capital, Tula, north of the 
Mexican valley, and the ruins of noble structures still found in the 
country and attributed to the Toltecs. 

A century after their disappearance a rude tribe called the Chi- 
chemecs, entered the country from the north-west, and were speedily 
followed by other races of higher civilization, who seem to have 
been of the same family with the Toltecs ; the Aztecs, or Mexicans, 
and the Acolhuans, better known by their later name of Tezcucans, 
from that of their capital on the western border of the lake. 
The Tezcucans fraternized with the few remaining Toltecs, and be- 
came missionaries of civilization to the Chichemecs. The increase 
of strength derived from this union enabled the Acolhuans to extend 
their empire over the ruder tribes in the north ; but the still more 
warlike kindred tribe of Tepanecs who inhabited the same valley, 
made an attack upon them, beat their armies, assassinated their king, 
and captured their metropolis. Nezahualcoyotl, the crown prince, 
displayed at this critical juncture the greatest ability, and by the 
timely aid of the Aztecs raised his race from this abject state to a 
new career of prosperity and glory. 

These Aztecs had arrived from the remote regions of the north, on 
the borders of Anahuac, towards the beginning of the thirteenth cen- 
tury, but they wandered about for many years without establishing 
themselves. At one time they were enslaved by a more powerful 
tribe, but they regained their freedom, and finally ended their migra- 
tion by founding, in 1325, the city of Tenochtitlan, now known only 
by its other name Mexico, derived from Mexitli, the appellation of 
their god of war. The translation of the former name is " a cactus, 
on a stone," and has reference to the miraculous origin of the city. 
The coat of arms of the Mexican republic, the eagle and the cactus 
also refers to this legend, which relates that on their arrival at the 
shores of the lake "they beheld perched on the stem of a prickl) 
pear which shot out from the crevice of a rock washed by the waves, 
a royal eagle of extraordinary size and beauty, with a serpent in 
his talons, and his broad wings opened to the rising sun. They 



THE AZTEC EMPIRE. 



29 




The Mexican Coat of Arms. 



hailed the auspicious omen announced by the oracle as indicating 
the site of their future city, and laid its foundations by sinking 
piles into the shallows ; for the low marshes were half buried under 
water. Upon these they erected their light fabrics of reeds and 
rushes ; and sought a precarious subsistence from fishing, and from 
the wild fowl which frequented the waters, as well as from the culti- 
vation of such simple vegetables as they could raise on their floating 
gardens. ***** u Such," says the eloquent historian, 
"were the humble beginnings of the Venice of the western world."* 

Domestic feuds rendered the condition of the new settlers still 
worse, and it was a long time before they could aspire to the acqui- 
sition of territory on the main land. The increase of their numbers, 
however, and their improvements in civilization and military disci- 
pline at length won for them a reputation for courage which inspired 
terror because they united with their bravery great cruelty. A hun- 
dred years after the foundation of their city, they assumed a new 
position and a different character among the tribes of the plain of 
Anahuac. 

The assassination of the king of the Tezcucans and the capture of 
their chief city by the Tepanecs, would have terminated for ever the 
Tezcucan dynasty but for the character of Nezahualcoyotl, whose 
history for ten years after the murder of his father, when he was but 



Preecott, Conquest of Mexico. 



oO 



30 THE AZTEC EMPIRE. 




NezahualcoyotL 

fifteen years of age, is as romantic as that of Alfred the Great, of 
Scanderbeg, or of Charles the Second. The usurper was succeeded 
on the throne of the Tepanecs by his son Maxtla, a man of a fierce, 
suspicious, and tyrannical disposition, who awakened the sympathy 
of all classes by his incessant persecution of the royal prince, while 
he estranged the* hearts of his subjects and neighbours from himself 
by his oppressions. Recalling to mind the mild rule of the Tezcu- 
can princes, the people were beginning to sigh for their restoration 
at the moment when the active friends of the royal exile, loving him 
for his worth, were forming a coalition for his relief. An insurrec- 
tion followed, Nezahualcoyotl soon found himself at the head of a 
strong force, with which he routed the Tepanec army, and seated 
himself on the re-established throne of Tezcuco. The Mexicans 
lent him their aid, and the allied powers, after several bloody battles, 
routed the usurper under the walls of his own capital. He fled to 
the baths, whence he was dragged forth to be sacrificed by the 
Aztecs. His city was razed to the ground, and his territories were 
awarded to the Mexicans in return for their valuable assistance. 

A league offensive and defensive was then made between the three 
states, Tezcuco, Mexico, and Tlacopan, in agreement with the terms 
of which they all shared in each other's councils, embarked in each 
other's enterprises, and moved together until just before the coming 
of the Spaniards. This league provided for the distribution of the 
subjugated lands among the parties, and it is one of the most re- 
markable facts in history, that du/mg a century of uninterrupted 
warfare which ensued, no quarrel occurred over the division of the 
spoil, but the treaty was maintained inviolate. 



THE AZTEC EMPIRE. 31 

The first measure of Nezahualcoyotl, on his restoration, was the 
declaration of a general amnesty. He then established a code of 
laws, which, for their severity, entitle him to the name of the Draco 
of Anahuac, but which were esteemed so admirable that the other 
two tribes adopted them as their own. The duties of the govern- 
ment he divided among a number of departments, the Council of 
State, the Council of War, the Council of Finance, the Council of 
Justice, and, what is most remarkable, the Council of Music, whose 
province it was to encourage the arts and sciences, and to exercise a 
censorship over all works presented for publication, and to constitute 
a general board of education for the country. On stated days, his- 
torical compositions, poems, &c, were read before a session, which 
the three kings of the empire honoured with their presence. 

"Architecture," says Mr. Prescott, "is the form in which the 
revenues of a semi-civilized people are most likely to be lavished. 
The most gaudy and ostentatious specimens of it, and sometimes the 
most stupendous have been reared by such hands. It is one of the 
first steps in the great march of civilization. 

UT the institution in question was evi- 
dence of still higher refinement. It was 
a literary luxury ; and argued the exist- 
ence of a taste in the nation, which 
relied for its gratification on pleasures of 
a purely intellectual character. Its 
influence was felt throughout the empire, 
and its institution fairly entitles the capi- 
tal to the glory of being the Athens of 
the Western world. 
" The Tezcucan monarch himself entered the field of literary com- 
petition as a poet, and specimens of his works, preserved by his 
descendants, evince signal ability. But his time was not wholly 
given to the labours of the study and the cabinet. The camp 
received an equal share of his attention. He led the armies of the 
allied nations in their annual expeditions in person, and annually 
enlarged his realm and its resources. The captives taken in war 
were employed as labourers on the public works, and the immense 
royal palace and the villas of the king. These latter were embel- 
lished with all that could make a rural retreat delightful, and some 
remains of their magnificence are still extant, among which, an exca- 
vation in the solid porphyry is shown to the traveller by the ignorant 
people as the Bath of Montezuma." 

The history of Nezahualcoyotl has been preserved by his son and 
grandson, and repeated from their accounts by a later descendant, 




32 



THE AZTEC EMPIRE. 








Bath of Montezuma. 



Ixtlilxochitl. It is filled with the most pleasing anecdotes of his 
clemency and justice, and on the other hand narrates as the basest 
action in their ancestor's life, an account of his obtaining to wife the 
betrothed of another by sending him to be slain in battle against the 
Tlascalans. This lady he made his wife, but for a long time had no 
issue by her. He at length suffered himself to be persuaded by the 
priests to endeavour to propitiate the gods by a human sacrifice, but 
it was of none effect, and the king exclaimed, " These idols of wood 
and stone can neither hear nor feel ; much less could they make the 
heavens, and the earth, and man, the lord of it. These must be the 
work of the all powerful and unknown God, creator of the universe, 
on whom alone I must rely for consolation and support." 

He withdrew to his rural palace of Tezcotzinco, and commenced 
the worship of " the unknown God, the cause of causes," by a fast 
of forty days, offering no other sacrifices than the incense of copal 
and aromatic herbs and gums. He afterwards built a temple to the 
invisible God, without images. Shortly after his abandonment of 
idolatry, his desires for an heir were realized, an event which tended 
still further to fix him in his new faith. As he grew old, he retired 
to the delicious solitudes of Tezcotzinco, where he devoted himself 
to study and to meditation on his immortal destiny. 



THE AZTEC EMPIRE. 



33 




Nezahualpilli. 



His death occurred about the year 1470, nearly half a century after 
the commencement of his reign. He was succeeded on the throne 
by his son, Nezahualpilli, then only eight years of age. This prince 
was only less remarkable than his father for his wisdom, piety, and 
rigid justice. Of the latter, we need only quote as an example the 
delivery of his eldest son into the hand of the executioner, in accord- 
ance with the sentence of the tribunal before which he was brought 
for maintaining a correspondence with one of the ladies of the court. 
That he had the feelings of a father, however, is proved by his grief 
at the occurrence. He shut himself up for many weeks, and com- 
manded the doors and windows of his son's residence to be walled 
up, that it might never again be occupied. 

Nezahualpilli was warlike in his youth, but became more and more 
wedded to the pursuit of learning as he advanced in years. Astro- 
nomical lore was his chief delight, and he spent the most of his time 
in the study of that science, and the enjoyment of the pleasures of 
Tezcotzinco. This quiet life, however, did not accord with the 
temper of the times, nor with that of the wily head of the Aztec race, 
Montezuma. The distant provinces threw off their allegiance ; dis- 
affection and turbulence entered the army ; and Montezuma, by a 
mixture of cunning and force, plundered his amiable rival of a large 
part of his most valuable domains, and then arrogated to himself the 
title and supremacy of emperor, which the Tezcucan princes had 
heretofore borne by virtue of their position as head of the alliance. 

These misfortunes hastened the death of Nezahualpilli, who sank 
into the grave in 1515, at the age of fifty-two. 

5 



34 



THE AZTEC EMPIRE. 



Under the sway of Montezuma, the arms of the allied nations, 
which had before extended the imperial dominion over all the valley, 
spread his rule down the sides of the table-land to the borders of the 
Gulf of Mexico. The progress of the empire was accompanied by 
a corresponding improvement in the capital, Tenochtitlan, which ex- 
tended itself over an area exceeding that which it now occupies. A 
succession of able princes filled the throne, who returned annually 
from the scenes of their conquests, attended by crowds of captives, 
laden with the spoils of their own cities. When the Spaniards landed 
on their coast, their dominion extended from the Gulf of Mexico to 
the Pacific, and into the farthest corners of Guatimala and Nicaragua, 
whither their arms had been led by the great Ahuitzotl 




Ahuitzotl. 




Sculptured stone in Monte of Mapilca. 



CHAPTER III. 



MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE AZTECS. 



HE advance in civilization brought 
about among the Tezcucans by the 
good Nezahualcoyotl and his suc- 
cessor has already been noticed. We 
come now to view the social condition of 
the Aztec race, whose increase in wealth- 
had early produced a love of pomp and 
magnificence in their modes of living and in 
their structures. Their government was an 
elective monarchy. The sovereign was chosen 
from the brothers or nephews of the deceased prince, by an electoral 
body of four nobles, who chose their own successors. The necessary 
qualifications must of course be possessed by a candidate who would 
hope to be successful under such a system, and its practical results 
made its advantages apparent. Able princes succeeded each other 
and guided the Avarlike and ambitious people successfully to con- 

(35) 




36 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 

quest and glory. The rule seems to have been to choose a man dis- 
tinguished in war, but an exception is found in Montezuma, who was 
a member of the priesthood. 

The ceremony of coronation was not performed until the monarch 
returned from a victorious campaign, with a sufficient number of cap- 
tives to grace his entry, and furnish victims for the human sacrifices, 
which formed a considerable part of the ceremonies attending his 
installation. The crown was placed on his head by the king of 
Tezcuco, as the most powerful of his subject allies. The legislative 
power rested wholly with the monarch, the executive with judicial 
tribunals, the higher authorities being appointed for life by the king, 
but wholly independent of the crown when in office, while the 
lower magistrates were chosen by the people. The king was assisted 
in the government by a number of bodies of councillors, the chief 
of which was a sort of privy council, composed of the four nobles 
who chose the successor to the crown. It appears that the most 
important offices and the governments of the provinces and cities 
were engrossed by the nobles, who mostly resided on their estates 
like independent princes, but were obliged to render military service, 
and according to some authorities, to keep hostages at the capital. 
In the courts, no counsel was employed, the parties stating their own 
case, and bringing forward their own witnesses. The clerk kept a 
record of the proceedings in hieroglyphical writing, which was 
handed over to the court ; in capital cases, where a criminal was 
condemned to death, the death warrant was issued by drawing an 
arrow over his picture in the record of the proceedings. Death was 
the punishment for almost every offence in civil and in military life, 
and among capital crimes was ranked intemperance. 

LA VERY existed in the community, under 
'Pk^J more liberal regulations than ever attended 
it elsewhere. The slaves were of four 
classes, prisoners of war, who were reserved 
for public sacrifice, criminals, public debtors, volun- 
tary slaves, and children sold by their parents, the 
two latter classes resulting from the poverty of indi- 
viduals. The slave was allowed to have his own 
family, to hold property, and to have other slaves, and his children 
were always born free. Poverty of the master was the only reason 
for the sale of a slave, except the latter's own bad conduct; the 
second time viciousness rendered the sale of a slave necessary, he 
was liable to be reserved for sacrifice. The royal income appears to 
have been raised by direct taxation upon the agriculture and manu- 
factures o* the realm, the assessment being frequently paid in kind 




MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 37 

Defaulting taxables were liable to be sold as slaves, and with the 
increased magnificence of the court, the taxes became so heavy, 
that many of the subjects of Montezuma welcomed the arrival of the 
Spaniards as deliverers. Despatches were borne by trained couriers, 
from station to station, with such speed that a message could be 
transmitted from one to two hundred miles a day, and this system 
was so complete that the court was kept in constant receipt of intel- 
ligence respecting the movements and success of the armies. 

The tutelary deity of the Aztecs was the God of war, and the 
chief aim of their institutions was to foster and elevate the profession 
of arms. The king must needs be a successful warrior, and the 
nobles and even the members of the royal family were prohibited 
from wearing other than a coarse dress, until by their deeds they 
had established a title to admission into the order of knighthood, 
which had been formed. The magnificence of dress of the war- 
riors corresponded with their rank, and in the army promotion 
was open to all. The lower orders were stimulated to deeds of 
heroism by the assurance that the soldier slain in battle was admitted 
immediately to the enjoyment of eternal happiness in the bright re- 
gions of the sun. Their great object in battle was to make captives, 
in order that their deity might have victims, and the valour of a 
warrior was estimated by the number of his prisoners. These were 
never scalped. Their discipline drew forth encomiums from their 
Spanish adversaries, and the skill of the surgeons in their well esta- 
blished hospitals no doubt merited the praise bestowed on them by 
the old chronicler, who preferred them to the surgeons of Europe, 
because " they did not protract the cure in order to increase the pay."* 
N their religion, the Aztecs recognized the existence of a 
supreme being of sublime attributes, to whom was added 
thirteen principal deities, and some two hundred inferior, 
each with a particular function. At the head of all was the 
war-god, Huitzilopotchli, the patron deity of the nation, 
whose altars reeked with the blood of hecatombs of human 
victims in every city. Quetzalcoatl was the god of the 
air, who taught them the use of metals, and agriculture, and the art 
of government, whose terrestrial residence in fact formed the golden 
age of Anahuac. He incurred the anger of one of the principal 
deities, and was banished the country. On his way, he stopped at 
Cholula, where are still found the interesting ruins of a temple dedi- 
cated to his worship. f When he embarked from the shores of the 

* Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, vol. i. 48. 

t This celebrated monument is thus described by Baron Humboldt: 
* The pyramid of Cholula," says he, " is exactly of the same height as that of Tonatiuh 

D 




3y 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 







Pyramid of Cholula. 



gulf, in his boat made of serpents' skins, he bade his followers fare- 
well, promising to return to them at some future day with his de- 
scendants. This remarkable tradition was universally known, and 
the promised return was constantly expected ; a circumstance which 
proved of considerable advantage to the Spaniards.* 

In their ideas of a future state, the Mexicans evinced a degree of 
progress that seems to be attributable to the Tezcucans, so incon- 
gruous is it with the other parts of their religious creed. 

The wicked were consigned after death to a place of everlasting 
darkness ; those who died of certain diseases, were subjected to an 
existence of indolent contentment ; while those who fell in battle or 
died on the sacrificial stone, were transported at once to the presence 
of the sun, whom they accompanied for some years in his course 

Ytxaqual at Teotihuacan. It is three metres higher than that of Mycerinus, or the 
third of the great Egyptian pyramids of the group of Djizeh. Its base, however, is larger 
than that of any pyramid hitherto discovered by travellers in the old world, and is double 
of that known as the pyramid of Cheops. 

Those who wish to form an idea of the immense mass of this Mexican monument by the 
comparison of objects best known to them, may imagine a square four times greater than that 
of the Place Vendome, in Paris, covered with layers of bricks, rising to twice the elevation 
of the Louvre. Some persons imagine that the whole of the edifice is not artificial ; but as 
far as explorations have been made, there is no reason to doubt that it is entirely a work 
of art. In its present state, (and we are ignorant of its perfect original height,) its per- 
pendicular proportion is to its base as eight to one, while in the three great pyramids 
of Djizeh, the proportion is found to be one six-tenths to one seven-tenths to one ; 01 
nearly as eight to five. 

* Prescott, vol. i. 60. 




MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 39 

through the heavens, and then went to animate the clouds and sing- 
ing birds of beautiful plumage, and to revel amidst the rich blossoms 
and odours of the gardens of paradise. At death, the corpse of a 
person was clothed in habiliments peculiar to his tutelar deity, 
strewed with pieces of paper, to preserve him from the dangers of the 
road he had to travel. Slaves, if he were rich, were sacrificed at his 
obsequies ; his body was burned, and the ashes collected into a vase, 
and preserved in his house. 

HE ceremony of conferring a name upon 
infants was very nearly akin with that 
of Christian baptism. The lips and 
bosom of the child were sprinkled with 
water, and " the Lord was implored to 
permit the holy drops to wash away 
the sin that was given to it before the 
foundation of the world, so that the 
child might be born anew."* 

The sacerdotal order was exceedingly 
numerous, and the priests, adding to 
their usual functions great learning in the sciences of astrology and 
divination, obtained an ascendancy over the minds of the people, 
such as has probably never been equalled. They taught the choirs, 
they arranged the festivals, they educated the youth, and to them 
was confided the task of preserving the historical records of the 
country, whether in hieroglyphical writings or oral traditions. Two 
high priests were at the head of their establishment, inferior only to 
the sovereign, who rarely presumed to act upon any important matter 
without their advice. 

The priests were each devoted to some particular deity, and had 
their residence assigned them in some part of the temple, where they 
lived in strict conventual discipline, practising austerities equally 
severe with any known to monastic fanaticism. They were allowed 
to marry, however, and have families of their own. They adminis- 
tered the rites of the confessional and absolution, imposing penances, 
as in the Roman Catholic church. The repetition of an offence once 
atoned for was deemed inexpiable, wherefore confession was usually 
deferred to an advanced period in life, when the sinner settled up 
accounts with his conscience, as a preparatory step to making his 
will. Priestly absolution was received instead of the legal punish- 
ment of offences, and a criminal, when arrested, was set at liberty, 
on producing the certificate of his confession. 

Nor was the maintenance of the priests neglected. It was amply 

* Prescott, vol. i. 63-4. 



40 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 




Great Teocalli, or Temple of Mexico. From an old print. 



provided for by grants of lands, and by the devotion of the princes 
and people. The surplus beyond what was needed to support 
the establishment, was faithfully distributed among the poor. Their 
religious ceremonies were of two kinds, one evidently Tezcucan 
in its origin, the other the bloody offspring of Aztec superstition. 
The first consisted of light and cheerful ceremonies, in which both 
sexes joined in songs, and dancing, and processions of women and 
children crowned with garlands, bore offerings of fruits and fragrant 
gums. At these festivals, the only sacrifices known were of animals. 

The other classes of religious ceremonies referred to were human 
sacrifices, which were commenced by the Aztecs about two hun- 
dred years before the conquest, and rapidly increased in frequency 
and number, until at the time of Cortes, thousands of victims were 
slain annually. 

" The Mexican temples," says Prescott, " Teocallis, houses of 
God, as they were called, were very numerous. There were several 
hundred in each of the principal cities, some of them doubtless very 
humble edifices. They were solid masses of earth cased with brick, 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 41 

or stone, and in their form somewhat resembled the pyramidal struc- 
tures of ancient Egypt. The bases of many of them were more 
than a hundred feet square, and they towered to a still greater height. 
They were distributed into four or five stories, each of smaller dimen- 
sions than that below. The ascent was by a flight of steps, at an 
angle of the pyramid on the outside. This led to a sort of terrace, 
or gallery, at the base of the second story, which passed quite round 
the building to another flight of stairs, commencing also at the same 
angle as the preceding and directly over it, and leading to a similar 
terrace, so that one had to make a circuit of the temple several times 
before reaching the summit. In some instances the stairway led di- 
rectly up the centre of the western face of the building. The top 
was a broad area on which were erected one or two towers, forty feet 
high, the sanctuaries, in which stood the sacred images of the presiding 
deities. Before these towers stood the dreadful stone of sacrifice, 
and two lofty altars, on which fires were kept as inextinguishable as 
those in the temple of Vesta. There were said to be six hundred 
of these altars on smaller buildings within the inclosure of the great 
temple of Mexico, which with those on the sacred edifices in other 
parts of the city, shed a brilliant illumination over its streets, through 
the darkest night. * * ***** 

" ONE of their most important festivals was 
that in honour of the god Tezcatlipoca, whose 
rank was inferior only to that of the Supreme 
Being. He was called the soul of the world, 
and supposed to have been its creator. He was 
depicted as a handsome man, endowed with 
perpetual youth. A year before the intended 
sacrifice, a captive distinguished for his personal 
beauty, and without a blemish on his body, was 
selected to represent this deity. Certain tutors 
/ took charge of him, and instructed him how to 
Ancient Mexican, from perform his new part with becoming grace and 
Stephens. dignity. He was arrayed in a splendid dress, 

regaled with incense, and with a profusion of sweet scented flowers, 
of which the ancient Mexicans were as fond as their descendants at 
the present day. When he went abroad, he was attended by a train 
of the royal pages, and, as he halted in the streets to play some fa- 
vourite melody, the crowd prostrated themselves before him, and did 
him homage, as the representative of their good deity. In this way 
he led an easy luxurious life, till within a month of his sacrifice. 
Four beautiful girls, bearing the names of the principal goddesses, 
were then selected to share the honours of his bed, and with them he 
d2 6 




42 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 




The ordinary human Sacrifice- 



Continued to live in idle dalliance, feasted at the banquets of the 
principal nobles, who paid him all the honours of a divinity. 

"At length the fatal day of sacrifice arrived. The term of his 
short-lived glories was at an end. He was stripped of his gaudy 
apparel, and bade adieu to the fair partners of his revelries. One of 
the royal barges transported him across the lake to a temple which 
'rose on its margin, about a league from the city. Hither the inha- 
bitants of the capital flocked, to witness the consummation of the 
ceremonies. As the sad procession wound up the sides of the pyra- 
mid, the unhappy victim threw away his gay chaplet of flowers, and 
broke in pieces the musical instruments with which he had solaced the 
hours of captivity. On the summit he was received by six priests, 
whose long and matted locks flowed disorderly over their sable 
robes, covered with hieroglyphical scrolls of mystic import. They 
led him to the sacrificial stone, a huge block of jasper, with its upper 
surface somewhat convex. On this the prisoner was stretched. Five 
priests secured his head and his limbs ; while the sixth clad in a 
scarlet mantle, emblematic of his bloody office, dexterously opened 
the breast of the wretched victim with a sharp razor of itztli^ — a 
volcanic substance, hard as flint, — and inserting his hand in the 
wound, tore out the palpitating heart. The minister of death, first 
holding this up towards the sun, an object of worship throughout 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



43 




Gladiatorial Sacrifice. 

Anahuac, cast it at the feet of the deity to whom the temple was 
devoted, while the multitudes below prostrated themselves in humble 
adoration. The tragic story of this prisoner was expounded by the 
priests as the type of human destiny, which brilliant in its com- 
mencement, too often closes in sorrow and disaster."* 

This was the ordinary mode of human sacrifice. Another, which 
las been termed the gladiatorial sacrifice, was conducted in this man- 
ner. The victim, being chained by one foot, was compelled to 
fight a succession of champions. If he vanquished them all, he 
escaped. If he failed, his life, of course, paid the forfeit. 

The Aztecs were acquainted with all kinds of hieroglyphical 
writing, but they confined themselves principally to the lowest stage 
of figurative or picture writing. Had their empire continued long 
in existence, they would probably have followed the course of the 
Egyptians, and used the system known by the term phonetic, in which 
signs are made to represent sounds. The conquest of their empire 
made them acquainted with the alphabetical system of the Spaniards. 
However clumsy their system was, it sufficed for recording their 



* Conquest of Mexico, vol. i. pp. 72-77. 



44 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 




Ancient Mexican Manuscript. 



laws, domestic regulations, public decrees, mythology, calendars, 
rituals, and historical annals. Their system of chronology was so 
good that they could specify with accuracy the dates of the most 
important events in their history. In order to estimate aright the 
literature of the people, the picture writing should be considered in 
connection with the traditions of the priests who taught it, and to 
which it was only auxiliary. These manuscripts were made of the 
leaves of the aloe chiefly, but cotton cloth, prepared skins, and a 
composition of silk and gum were made to answer the purpose. 
They were sometimes made into rolls, but most frequently folded up, 
like a folding screen, into volumes, the pages of which might be re- 
ferred to and read separately. Unfortunately the Spaniards looked 
upon these manuscripts as magic scrolls, and destroyed them as the 
symbols of superstition. Don Juan de Zumarraga, the first arch- 
bishop of Mexico, collected from all parts of the empire, and espe- 
cially from the national archives in Tezcuco, a " mountain heap" 
of these works, and reduced them all to ashes. The Spanish sol- 
diers vied with each other in imitating this example, and the sur- 
viving memorials of Mexican civilization are extremely rare, and 
scattered over the world, excepting in Spain, where there are none. 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 45 

Their system of arithmetical notation was very simple, yet, perhaps, 
better adapted to the purpose than any other arrangement in use 
before the introduction of the Arabic cyphers. " The whole eastern 
world, "to use the words of Niebuhr, "has followed the moon in its 
calendar, the free scientific divisions of a large portion of time is 
peculiar to the west." Such a division was that employed in the 
Mexican calendar, which so exactly adjusted civil to solar time, that 
five centuries would elapse, according to Mr. Prescott's showing, 
before there would be the loss of a single day. " Such," he adds, 
" was the astonishing precision displayed by the Aztecs, or perhaps 
by their more polished Toltec predecessors, in these computations 
so difficult as to have baffled, till a comparatively recent period, the 
most enlightened nations of Christendom."* Besides the solar 
calendar, the priests constructed another for themselves, not less in- 
genious, which they used in the arrangement of their festivals, and in 
their astrological and astronomical pursuits. Of their proficiency in 
these studies we know little more than that they knew the causes of 
eclipses, and were able to settle the hours of the day, the periods of 
the solstices, and of the equinoxes, and that of the transit of the sun 
across the zenith of Mexico, with precision.! 

THE Mexicans paid much attention to agri- 
culture and botany, and their collections pro- 
bably suggested the formation of the gardens 
of plants which began to appear in Europe 
soon after the time of the conquest. The mine- 
ral kingdom also excited their attention, and 
they worked mines with a considerable degree 
of skill. Iron, however, was unknown to them, 
and their tools were made of an alloy of tin 
Mexican Indian, from and copper, and of a mineral substance called 
Catlin< itztli. With implements of this latter material 

they wrought the stones employed in constructing their public 
works and dwellings, and the sculptures so frequently dug up in 
Mexico. The most remarkable of these is the great calendar 
stone dug up in 1790, and now walled against the base of one 
of the towers of the cathedral, where it passes by the name of 
Montezuma's watch. It is eleven feet eight inches in diameter, and 
the figures are raised seven and a half inches above the broken 
square of rock out of which the whole was originally carved. 
It is computed to have weighed nearly fifty tons. They had carried 

* Prescott, vol. i. p. 113. 

t Humboldt; Gallatin, in the first volume of the Philosophical Transaction of Ame- 
rican Ethnological Society. 




46 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 




Great Calendar Stone. 



to great perfection the art of working in gold and silver, and were 
well skilled in other mechanical arts. Every fifth day fairs were 
held in the market-places of the principal cities, where the people 
from the neighbourhood met to sell and buy. They traded partly by 
barter and partly by means of a rude but regulated currency. Trade 
was greatly respected as a means of livelihood, but the mechanical 
arts were held in esteem, and, as there were no castes, the nobles 
were expected to have a useful calling as well as the lowly born. 
The merchants who went trading into other countries, went with 
large bodies of servants well armed, and they acted as spies for the 
government, and any indignity offered them would easily furnish a 
pretext to the Aztec rulers for a war, when the stock of victims for 
sacrifice was low. In their domestic life, women mingled unre- 
servedly among the men in social festivities and entertainments, and 
were always tenderly treated. They were somewhat fastidious in 
their cooking, and when the body of a sacrificed victim was given 
to the warrior who had captured him, to be eaten, the repast was 
served up with many beverages and viands of delicacy, and the 
feast was conducted with all the decorum of civilized life. 

Such was the strangely compounded character of the people "whose 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



47 



arms were to be vainly dashed against the mail-clad adventurers 
under Cortes, who now came to overturn their whole social system, 
and replace it with another, which, though it was almost equally 
crushing from the weight of its own superstition on one hand, still 
held to the Bible on the other, the sublime truths of which, the reign 
of fanaticism ended, could not fail to expel the many forms of evil 
which had infested the fair plain of Anahuac. 




Interior of a modern Mexican house. 




CHAPTER IV. 



ANCIENT MONUMENTS OF MEXICO. 



EFORE proceeding to our account of the 
conquest of Mexico, by Cortes, we will no- 
tice some of the remarkable remains of an- 
tiquity with which this country abounds. Our 
limits are narrow, and our notice of these 
remains must necessarily be slight and gene- 
ral ; but the ancient ruins present altogether 
too remarkable a feature in the aspect of the 
country to be passed over in any account of 
it, however summary. 

We have already observed that Mexico is a country of which 
comparative little is known. The jealous policy of the Spaniards 
"endered its geography and history almost a sealed book, during 
their domination ; and perpetual disturbances, since the revolution, 
have rendered explorations, by foreign travellers, almost impracti- 
cable. Until Baron Humboldt visited the country very little was 

(48) 




ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 49 

known of the antiquities which are so numerous in Mexico proper, 
while the wonderful treasures of art, which lie mouldering in Central 
America and Yucatan," were not fully revealed to us until our own 
countrymen, Stephens and Norman, explored, delineated, and de- 
scribed them. 

These remains, as well as many of those in Mexico proper, are ge- 
nerally referred to a people more ancient than any of those which are 
known even to the earliest historians of Anahuac. They cannot be 
the work of the Aztecs, who founded the city of Mexico, in 1325, 
nor is there much better ground for referring their origin to the earlier 
visiters from the north, the Acolhuans, Chichemecs, Toltecs, or their 
predecessors, the Ulmecs. They are apparently the work of a peo- 
ple whose existence is not recorded in any history, the cotemporaries, 
perhaps, of those giant architects, the shepherd kings of Egypt, the 
founders of those massy monuments which astonish the traveller in 
Memphis and Thebes. 

Of the origin of the pyramid of Cholula, which we have already 
noticed, the Aztec chroniclers give a circumstantial account ; but 
their date of its origin is at that remote period when the Mexicans, like 
the Greeks, Egyptians, and all other ancient nations, had their gods 
dwelling among them, the mythological age, fruitful in marvels of 
every kind. The great temple of Mexico, already noticed, was com- 
paratively modern. Its existence began with the priests of the bloody 
religion of the Aztecs, and ended with their empire. 

For an account of some of the more remarkable ruins in Mexico 
proper, which we subjoin, we are indebted to the lively and enter- 
taining work of Brantz Mayer, Esq., of Baltimore, entitled, "Mexi- 
co, As it Was and As it Is." The following is extracted from his 
description of the ruins of the pyramid of Xochicalco. 

t" AT the distance of six leagues from the city 
of Cuernavaca lies a cerro, three hundred feet 
in height, which, with the ruins that crown it, 
is known by the name of Xochicalco, or the 
" Hill of Flowers." The base of this eminence 
is surrounded by the very distinct remains of a 
deep and wide ditch ; its summit is attained by 
^- five spiral terraces ; the walls that support them 
W^"%JT are built of stone, joined by cement, and are 

Ancient Mexican, from still quite perfect ; and at regular distances, as 
the Monuments. . f fo Dll ttress these terraces, there are remains 
of bulwarks shaped like the bastions of a fortification. The summit 
of the hill is a wide esplanade, on the eastern side of which are still 
perceptible three truncated cones, resembling the tumuli found 
E 7 



50 



ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 




Ruins of Xochicalco. 



among many similar ruins in Mexico. On the other sides there are 
also large heaps of loose stones of irregular shape, which seem to have 
formed portions of similar mounds or tumuli, or, perhaps, parts of 
fortifications in connection with the wall that is alleged by the old 
writers to have surrounded the base of the pyramid, but of which I 
could discern no traces. 

" The stones forming parts of the conical remains, have evidently 
been shaped by the hand of art, and are often found covered with 
an exterior coat of mortar, specimens of which I took away with 
me, as sharp and perfect as the day it was laid on centuries ago. 

" Near the base of the last terrace, on which the pyramid rises, 
the esplanade is covered with trees and tangled vines, but the body 
of the platform is cultivated as a corn-field. We found the Indian 
owner at work in it, and were supplied by him with the long-desired 
comfort of a gourd of water. He pointed out to us the way to the 
summit of the terrace through the thick brambles ; and rearing our 
horses up the crumbling stones of the wall, we stood before the ruins 
of this interesting pyramid, the remains of which, left by the neigh- 
bouring planters after they had borne away enough to build the walls 
of their haciendas, now lie buried in a grove of palmettoes, bananas, 
and forest-trees, apparently the growth of many hundred years 

"Indeed, this pyramid seems to have been (like the Forum and 
Colliseum at Rome,) the quarry for all the builders in the vicinity • 



ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 53 

and Alzate, who visited it as far back as 1777, relates, that not more 
than twenty years before, the Jive terraces of which it consisted, were 
still perfect ; and that on the eastern side of the upper platform there 
had been a magnificent throne carved from porphyry, and covered 
with hieroglyphics of the most graceful sculpture. Soon after this 
period, however, the work of destruction was begun by a certain 
Estrada, and it is not more than a couple of years since one of the 
wealthiest planters of the neighbourhood ended the line of spoilers 
by carrying off enormous loads of the squared and sculptured mate- 
rials, to build a tank in a barranca to bathe his cattle ! All that now 
remains of the five stories, terraces, or bodies of the pyramid, are 
portions of the first, the whole of which is of dressed porphyritic 
rock, covered with singular figures and hieroglyphics executed in a 
skilful manner. The engraving on page 50 presents a general view 
of the ruins as seen from the westward. 

"The basement is a rectangular building, and its dimensions on 
the northern front, measured above the plinth, are sixty-four feet in 
length, by fifty-eight in depth on the western front. The height be- 
tween the plinth and frieze is nearly ten feet ; the breadth of the 
frieze is three feet and a half, and of the cornice one foot and five 
inches. I placed my compass on the wall, and found the lines of 
the edifice to correspond exactly with the cardinal points." 

Of the ruins of the pyramid of Teotihuacan, Mr. Mayer gives the 
fallowing account : 

" On leaving the town our road lay in a north-easterly direction, 
through a number of picturesque villages buried in foliage, and fenced 
with the organ cactus, lifting its tall pillar-like stems to a height of 
twenty feet above the ground. The country was rolling, and we 
passed over several elevations and a stream or two before we turned 
suddenly to the right, and saw the village of St. Juan with an exten- 
sive level beyond it, bordered on all sides by mountains, except 
toward the east, where a deep depression in the chain leads into the 
plains of Otumba. In the centre of this level are the pyramids of 
Teotihuacan, and the opposite engraving will give you an accurate 
idea of their position and present appearance from this point. 

" After we passed through the village, the high road was soon lost 
among paths leading between the walled fields of Indian farmers. 
At short distances, as we advanced in the direction of the pyramids, 
I observed evident traces of a well-made ancient road, covered with 
several inches of a close and hard cement, which, in turn, was often 
overlaid with a foot or two of soil. We crossed the plain, and, in 
a quarter of an hour, stood at the foot of the Tonatiuh Ylzagual, or, 
" House of the Sun," the base line of which is six hundred and 
e2 



54 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 

eighty-two feet, and the perpendicular height, two hundred and 
twenty-one.* 

li There is no other description of these monuments to be given 
than by saying that tJiey are pyramids, three stories or stages of which 
aire yet distincty visible. The whole of their exteriors is covered with 
a thick growth of nopals or prickly pears ; and, in many places, I 
discovered the remains of the coating of cement with which they 
were encrusted in the days of their perfection. A short distance 
north- westwardly from the ' House of the Sun,' is the Metzli Ytza- 
gual, or ' House of the Moon,' with a height of one hundred and 
forty-four feet. On the level summits of both of these, there were 
erected, no doubt, the shrines of the gods and the places of sacrifice. 

11 1 ascended, clambering among the bushes and loose stones with 
uncertain footing, to the top of the ' House of the Sun.' The view 
from it was exceedingly picturesque over the cultivated fields to the 
east and south. Immediately to the south were a number of mound- 
like clusters, running toward a number of elevations arranged in a 
square, beyond the streamlet of Teotihuacan, and bordering the road 
that leads to Otumba. On the western front there were also five or 
six tumuli extending toward a long line of similar mounds, running 
from the southern side of the 'House of the Moon.' These lines 
were quite distinct, and the whole plain was more or less covered 
with heaps of stones. It is extremely probable, that at one time they 
all formed the sepulchres of the distinguished men of the empire, 
and constituted the Micoatl, or ' Path of the Dead' — a name which 
they bore in the ancient language of the country. It was the West- 
minster Abbey of the Toltecs and Aztecs." 

Mr. Mayer's account of the aqueduct of Tezcosingo, is very inter- 
esting He says: 

" Directly at the foot of the eminence on which we rested, there 
was an extensive Indian remain. By an able system of engineering, 
the water had been brought by the ancients from the eastern sierra, 
for a distance, probably, of three leagues, by conduits across barran- 
cas and along the sides of the hill ; and the ruin below us was that 
of one of these aqueducts, across a ravine about a hundred feet in 
elevation. 

"You will find a view of this work in the opposite picture. The 
base of the two conduit pipes is raised to the required level on stones 
and masonry, and the canals for the water are made of an exceed- 
ingly hard cement, of mortar and fragments of pounded brick. Al- 
though, of course, long since abandoned, it is, in many places, as 

• Glennie. 



AQUEDUCT OF TEZCOSINGO. 57 

perfect as on the day of its completion ; and perhaps as good a work, 
for all the necessary purposes, as could be formed at the present day 
by the most expert engineers. 

" The view over the valley, to the north, towards the pyramids of 
Teotihuacan, and across the lake to Mexico, was uninterrupted ; and 
the city (beyond the waters, surrounded by a mirage on the distant 
plain) seemed placed again, as it was three hundred years ago, in 
the midst of a beautiful lake. 

" After we had finished our meal, we gave a small compensation to 
the Indian, and resumed our route toward Tezcosingo. The road, for 
a long distance, lay over an extensive table-land, with a deep valley 
north and south, filled on both sides with haciendas, villages, and 
plantations. We crossed the shoulder of a mountain, and descended 
half way a second ravine, near the eighth of a mile in extent, until 
we struck the level of another ancient aqueduct, that led the waters 
directly to the hill of Tezcosingo. This elevation was broader, firmer, 
and even in better preservation, than the first. It may be crossed on 
horseback — three abreast. 

" As soon as we struck the celebrated hill, we began ascending 
rapidly, by an almost imperceptible cattle-path, among gigantic cacti, 
whose thorns tore our skins as we brushed by them. Over the whole 
surface, there were remains of a spiral road cut from the living rock, 
strewn with fragments of pottery, Indian arrows, and broken sacri- 
ficial knives ; while, occasionally, we passed over the ruins of an 
aqueduct winding round the hill. The eminence seems to have been 
converted, from its base to its summit, (a distance of perhaps five 
hundred feet,) into a pile of those terraced gardens, so much admired 
by every tourist who falls into raptures among the romantic groves of 
Isola Bella. 

UR horses seemed to be better ac- 
customed to the dangerous clamber- 
ing among these steeps, than our- 
selves, and we therefore continued 
in our saddles until we reached a point about 
\ fifty feet below the summit, where, in a due 
northerly direction, the rock had been cut into 
seats along a recess leading to a perpendicular 
wall, which is said to have been covered, until 
recently, with a Toltec calendar. When the 
Indians found that a place otherwise so unattractive, was visited by 
foreigners, they immediately imagined their ancestors had concealed 
treasures behind the stone; as they supposed that gold, and not 
mere curiosity, could have lured strangers from a distance to so un- 

8 




58 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 

sightly a spot. They consequently destroyed the carved rock in ordei 
to penetrate the hill, and there is now not a fragment of the ancient 
sculpture remaining. In the hole burrowed by the treasure-finders, 
we discovered a number of Indians, of both sexes, sheltering them- 
selves from the rain ; and as they had a supply of nopals, (with which 
the surrounding rocks are covered,) we were not loth to dismount, 
and, forgetting our indignation for the moment, crawled into their 
cavern to enjoy the luscious fruit. 

" A few steps upward led us to the summit of Tezcosingo. I found 
there no remains of a temple or edifice ; but as the hill is supposed to 
have been formerly dedicated to the bloody rites of Indian worship, 
modern piety has thought proper to purify the spot by the erection of a 
cross. And never was one built on a more majestic and commanding 
site. From its foot the entire valley, lake, Tezcuco, Mexico, and lakes 
far to the north, were distinctly visible, and the beauty of the panorama 
was greatly increased by the sudden clearing of the skies, and an 
outburst of the setting sun." 

The ruins of Quemada, lying north of the city of Mexico, in the 
department of Zacatecas, are very extensive, and must be referred to 
a very remote period of antiquity. The view of a portion of them, 
which we give, embraces the court -yard of a temple, as drawn by 
M. Nebel. Captain Lyon, quoted by Mr. Mayer, describes them in 
the following terms : 

" We set out," says he, " on our expedition to the Cerro de los 
Edificios, under the guidance of an old ranchero, and soon arrived 
at the foot of the abrupt and steep rock on which the buildings are 
situated. Here we perceived two ruined heaps of stones, flanking 
the entrance to a causeway ninety-three feet broad, commencing at 
four hundred feet from the cliff. 

" A space of about six acres has been inclosed by a broad wall, 
of which the foundations are still visible, running first to the south 
and afterward to the east. Off its south-western angle stands a high 
mass of stones, which flanks the causeway. In outward appearance 
it is of a pyramidal form, owing to the quantities of stones piled 
against it either by design or by its own ruin ; but on closer exami- 
nation its figure could be traced by the remains of solid walls, to 
have been a square of thirty-one feet by the same height : the heap 
immediately opposite is lower and more scattered, but in all proba- 
bility formerly resembled it. Hence the grand causeway runs to the 
north-east until it reaches the ascent of the cliff, which, as I have 
already observed, is about four hundred yards distant. Here again 
are found two masses of ruins, in which may be traced the same 
construction as that before described ; and it is not improbable that 



RUINS OF QUE MAD A. 61 

these two towers guarded the inner entrance to the citadel. In the 
centre of the causeway, which is raised about a foot, and has its 
rough pavement uninjured, is a large heap of stones, as if the remains 
of some altar; round which we could trace, notwithstanding the 
accumulation of earth and vegetation, a paved border of flat slabs 
arranged in the figure of a six-rayed star. 

a We did not enter the city by the principal road, but led our 
horses, with some difficulty, up the steep mass formed by the ruins of 
a defensive wall, inclosing a quadrangle two hundred and forty feet 
by two hundred, which, to the east, is still sheltered by a strong wall 
of unhewn stones, eight feet in thickness and eighteen in height. A 
raised terrace, of twenty feet in width, passes round the northern and 
eastern sides of this space, and on its south-east corner is yet standing 
a round pillar of rough stones, of the same height as the wall, and 
nineteen feet in circumference. 

" There appear to have been five other pillars on the east, and four 
on the northern terrace ; and as the view of the plain which lies to 
the south and west is hence very extensive, I am inclined to believe 
that the square has always been open in these directions. Adjoining 
to this, we entered by the eastern side to another quadrangle, entirely 
surrounded by perfect walls of the same height and thickness as the 
former one, and measuring one hundred and fifty-four feet by one 
hundred and thirty-seven. In this were yet standing fourteen very 
well-constructed pillars, of equal dimensions with that in the adjoin- 
ing inclosure, and arranged, four in length and three in breadth of 
the quadrangle, from which on every side they separated a space of 
twenty-three feet in width : probably the pavement of a portico of 
which they once supported the roof. In their construction, as well 
as that of all the walls which we saw, a common clay having straw 
mixed with it has been used, and is yet visible in those places which 
are sheltered from the rains. Rich grass was growing in the spacious 
courts where Aztec monarchs may once have feasted ; and our cattle 
were so delighted with it that we left them to graze while we walked 
about three hundred yards to the northward, over a very wide para- 
pet, and reached a perfect, square, flat-topped pyramid of large 
unhewn stones. It was standing unattached to any other buildings, 
at the foot of the eastern brow of the mountain, which rises abruptly 
behind it. On the eastern face is a platform of twenty-eight feet in 
width, faced by a parapet wall of fifteen feet, and from the base of 
this extends a second platform with a parapet like the former, and 
one hundred and eighteen feet wide. These form the outer defensive 
boundary of the mountain, which from its figure has materially 
favoured their construction. There is every reason to believe that 
F 



62 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 

this eastern face must have been of great importance. A slightly 
raised and paved causeway of about twenty-five feet descends across 
the valley, in the direction of the rising sun ; and being continued 
on the opposite side of a stream which flows through it, can be 
traced up the mountains at two miles' distance, until it terminates at 
the base of an immense stone edifice, which probably may also have 
been a pyramid. Although a stream (Rio del Partido) runs mean- 
dering through the plain from the northward, about midway between 
the two elevated buildings, I can scarcely imagine that the cause- 
way should have been formed for the purpose of bringing water to 
the city, which is far more easy of access in many other directions 
much nearer to the river, but must have been constructed for import- 
ant purposes between the two places in question ; and it is not im- 
probable, that it once formed the street between the frail huts of the 
poorer inhabitants. The base of the large pyramid measured fifty 
feet, and I ascertained, by ascending with a line, that its height was 
precisely the same. Its flat top was covered with earth and a little 
vegetation ; and our guide asserted, although he knew not whence 
he received the information, that it was once surmounted by a statue. 
Off the south-east corner of this building, and at about fifteen yards 
distant, is to be seen the edge of a circle of stones about eight feet in 
diameter, inclosing, as far as we could judge on scraping away the 
soil, a bowl-shaped pit, in which the action of fire was plainly ob- 
servable ; and the earth, from which we picked some pieces of 
pottery, was evidently darkened by an admixture of soot or ashes. 
At the distance of one hundred yards south-west of the large pyramid, 
is a small one, twelve feet square, and much injured. This is situ- 
ated on somewhat higher ground, in the steep part of the ascent to 
the mountain's brow. On its eastern face, which is toward the de- 
clivity, the height is eighteen feet; and apparently there have been 
steps by which to descend to a quadrangular space, having a broad 
terrace round it, and extending east one hundred feet by a width of 
fifty. In the centre of this inclosure is another bowl-shaped pit, 
somewhat wider than the first. Hence we began our ascent to the 
upper works, over a well-buttressed yet ruined wall, built, to a cer- 
tain extent, so as to derive advantage from the natural abruptness of 
the rock. Its height on the steepest side is twenty-one feet, and the 
width on the summit, which is level, with an extensive platform, is 
the same. This is a double wall, one of ten feet having been first 
constructed and then covered with a very smooth kind of cement, 
after which the second has been built against it. The platform 
(which faces to the south, and may to a certain extent be considered 
as a ledge from the cliff,) is eighty-nine feet by seventy-two ; and on 



RUINS OF QUEMADA. 63 

its northern centre stand the ruins of a square building, having within 
it an open space of ten feet by eight, and of the same depth. In 
the middle of the quadrangle is to be seen a mound of stones eight 
feet high. A little farther on, we entered by a broad opening be- 
tween two perfect and massive walls, to a square of one hundred and 
fifty feet. This space was surrounded on the south, east, and west, 
by an elevated terrace of three feet by twelve in breadth, having in 
the centre of each side steps, by which to descend to the square. 
Each terrace was backed by a wall of twenty feet by eight or nine. 
From the south are two broad entrances, and on the east is one of 
thirty feet, communicating with a perfect inclosed square of two hun- 
dred feet, while on the west is one small opening, leading to an 
artificial cave or dungeon, of which I shall presently speak. 

" To the north, the square is bounded by the steep mountain, and 
in the centre of that side stands a pyramid with several ledges, or 
stages, which in many places are quite perfect. It is flat-topped, has 
four sides, and measures at the base thirty-eight by thirty-five feet, 
while in height it is nineteen. Immediately behind this, and on all 
that portion of the hill which presents itself to the square, are nume- 
rous tiers of seats, either broken in the rock or built of rough stones. 
In the centre of the square, and due south of the pyramid, is a small 
quadrangular building, seven feet by five in height. The summit is 
imperfect, but it has unquestionably been an altar; and from the 
whole character of the space in which it stands, the peculiar form of 
the pyramid, the surrounding terrace, and the seats or steps on the 
mountain, there can be little doubt that this has been the grand Hall 
of Sacrifice or Assembly, or perhaps both. 

ASSING to the westward, we next saw some 
narrow inclosed places, apparently portions 
of an aqueduct leading from some tanks on 
the summit of the mountain ; and then were 
shown the mouth of the cave, or subterraneous 
passage, of which so many superstitious sto- 
ries are yet told and believed. One of the 
principal objects of our expedition had been to enter this mysterious 
place, which none of the natives had ever ventured to do, and we 
came provided with torches for the purpose. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, the mouth had very recently fallen in, and we could merely see 
that it was a narrow, well-built entrance, bearing, in many places, the 
remains of good smooth plastering. A large beam of cedar once sup- 
ported the roof, but its removal by the country people had caused the 
dilapidation which we now observed. Mr. Tindal, in knocking out 
some pieces of regularly burnt brick, soon brought a ruin upon hii 




64 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 

head, but escaped without injury ; and his accident caused a thick 
cloud of yellow dust to fall, which on issuing from the cave assumed 
a bright appearance under the full glare of the sun ; — an effect not 
lost upon the natives, who became more than ever persuaded that an 
immense treasure lay hidden in this mysterious place. The general 
opinion of those who remember the excavation is, that it was very 
deep ; and, from many circumstances, there is a probability of its 
having been a place of confinement for victims. Its vicinity to the 
great hall, in which there can be little doubt that the sanguinary rites 
of the Mexicans were once held, is one argument in favour of this 
supposition; but there is another equally forcible — its immediate 
proximity to a cliff of about one hundred and fifty feet, down which 
the bodies of victims may have been precipitated, as was the custom 
at the inhuman sacrifices of the Aztecs.* A road or causeway, to be 
noticed in another place, terminates at the foot of this precipice, ex- 
actly beneath the cave and overhanging rock; and conjecture can 
form no other idea of its intended utility, unless as being in some 
manner connected with the purposes of the dungeon. 

"Hence we ascend to a variety of buildings, all constructed with 
the same regard to strength, and inclosing spaces on far too large a 
scale for the abode of common people. On the extreme ridge of the 
mountain were several tolerably perfect tanks. 

" In a subsequent visit to this extraordinary place, I saw some 
other buildings, which had at first escaped my notice. These were 
situated on the summit of a rock terminating the ridge, at about half 
a mile to the N. N. W. of the citadel. 

" The first is a building originally eighteen feet square, but having 
the addition of sloping walls to give it a pyramidal form. It is flat- 
topped, and on the centre of the southern face there have been steps 
by which to ascend to the summit. The second is a square altar, its 
height and base being each about sixteen feet. These buildings are 
surrounded at no great distance by a strong wall ; and at a quarter 
of a mile to the northward, advantage is taken of a precipice to con- 
struct another wall of twelve feet in width upon its brink. On a small 
flat space between this and the pyramid, are the remains of an open 
square edifice, to the southward of which are two long mounds of 
stone, each extending about thirty feet ; and to the north-east is another 
ruin, having large steps up its side. I should conceive the highest 
wall of the citadel to be three hundred feet above the plain, and the 
bare rock surmounts it by about thirty feet more. 

" The whole place in fact, from its isolated situation, the disposi- 

* The writings of Clarigero, Solis, Bernal Diaz, and others, describe this mode of dis- 
posing of the bodies of those whose hearts had been torn out and offered to the idol. 



RUINS OF QUEMADA. 65 

I 
lion of its defensive walls, and the favourable figure of the rock, must 
have been impregnable to Indians ; and even European troops would 
have found great difficulty in ascending to those works, which I have 
ventured to name the Citadel. There is no doubt that the greater 
mass of the nation which once dwelt here, must have been established 
upon the plain beneath, since from the summit of the rock we could 
distinctly trace three straight and very extensive causeways, diverg- 
ing from that over which we first passed. The most remarkable of 
these runs south-west for two miles, is forty-six feet in width, and, 
crossing the grand causeway, is continued to the foot of the cliff, im- 
mediately beneath the cave which I have described. Its more distant 
extreme is terminated by a high and long artificial mound, imme- 
diately beyond the river, toward the hacienda of La Quemada. We 
could trace the second south and south-west, to a small rancho named 
Coyote, about four miles distant ; and the third ran south-west by south, 
still farther, ceasing, as the country people informed us, at a moun- 
tain six miles distant. All these roads had been slightly raised, were 
paved with rough stones, still visible in many places above the grass, 
and perfectly straight. 

" From the flatness of the fine plain over which they extended, 
I cannot conceive them to have been constructed as paths, since the 
people, who walked barefoot and used no animals of burden, must 
naturally have preferred the smooth, earthy footways, which pre- 
sented themselves on every side, to these roughly paved ones. If 
this be allowed, it is not difficult to suppose that they were the cen- 
tre of streets or huts, which, being in those times constructed of the 
same kind of frail materials as those of the present day, must long 
since have disappeared. Many places on the plain are thickly 
strewed with stones, which may once have formed building materials 
for the town; and there are extensive modern walls round the cattle 
farms, which, not improbably, were constructed from the nearest 
streets. At all events, whatever end these causeways may have 
answered, the citadel itself still remains, and from its size and 
strength confirms the accounts given by Cortez, Bernal Diaz, and 
others of the conquerors, of the magnitude and extent of the Mexican 
edifices, but which have been doubted by Robertson, De Pau, and 
others. We observed also, in some sheltered places, the remains of 
good plaster, confirming the accounts above alluded to ; and there 
can be little doubt that the present rough, yet magnificent buildings, 
were once encased in wood and whitened, as ancient Mexico, the 
towns of Yucatan, Tobasco, and many other places are described to 
have been. 

" The Cerro de los Edificios, and the mountains of the surround- 
f2 9 



66 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 

ing range, are all of gray porphyry, easily fractured into slabs, and 
this, with comparatively little labour, has furnished building-materials 
for the edifices which crown its summit. We saw no remnants of 
obsidian among the ruins or on the plain — which is remarkable, as 
being the general substance of which the knives and arrow-heads of 
the Mexicans were formed ; but a few pieces of a very compact 
porphyry were lying about, and some appeared to have been chipped 
to a rude form resembling arrow-heads. 

" Not a trace of the ancient name of this interesting place, or that 
of the nation which inhabited it, is now to be found among the peo- 
ple in the neighbourhood, who merely distinguished the isolated rock 
and buildings by one common name, ' Los Edificios.' I had inquired 
of the best instructed people about these ruins ; but all my researches 
were unavailing, until I fortunately met with a note in the Abbe Cla- 
vigero's 'History of Mexico,' which throws some light on the subject 
'The situation of Chicomoztoc, where the Mexicans sojourned nine 
years, is not known ; but it appears to be that place, twenty miles 
distant from Zacatecas, toward the south, where there are still some 
remains of an immense edifice, which, according to the tradition of 
the Zacatecanos, the ancient inhabitants of that country, was the 
work of the Aztecs on their migration ; and it certainly cannot be 
ascribed to any other people, the Zacatecanos themselves being so bar- 
barous as neither to live in houses nor to know how to build them.' " 

" Fifteen leagues west from Papantla," says Mr. Mayer, " lie the 
remains of Tusapan, supposed to have been a city of the Totonacos. 
They are situated in the lap of a small plain at the foot of the Cordil- 
lera, and are relics of a town of but limited extent. Of all these, 
however, nothing remains in great distinctness but the pyramidal 
monument, or Teocalli, of which the following drawing is given by 
Nebel. 

" This edifice has a base line of thirty feet on every side, and is built 
of irregular stones. A single stairway leads to the upper part of the 
first story, on which is erected a quadrangular house or tower ; while 
in front of the door still stands the pedestal of the idol, though all 
traces of the figure itself are gone. The interior of this apartment is 
twelve feet square, and the roof terminates in a point like the exte- 
rior. The walls have evidently been painted, but the outlines of the 
figures are no longer distinguishable. 

" The door and the two friezes are formed of sculptured stones ; 
but it is evident from the fragments of carving, and a variety of figures 
of men and animals that lie in heaps about the rest of the city, that 
this temple was, in point of adornment, by no means the most splen- 
did edifice of Tusapan." 



RUINS OF PAPANTLA. 



67 




Temple at Tusapan. 

"The village of Papantla," says Mr. Mayer, "lies sixteen leagues 
from the sea, and fifty-two north from Vera Cruz, at the base of the 
eastern mountains, in the midst of fertile savannahs constantly watered 
by streams from neighbouring hills. Although it is the centre of a 
country remarkable for fertility,* the Indian village has scarcely a white 
inhabitant, with the exception of the curate, and some few dealers, who 
come from the coast to traffic their wares for the products of the soil. 
The people of the upper country dislike to venture into the heat and dis- 
ease of the tierra caliente; and, in turn, its inhabitants dislike an expo- 
sure to the chills of the tierras frias or templadas. Thus the region of 
Papantla, two leagues from the village, has hitherto remained an un- 
explored nook, even at the short distance of fifty miles from the coast ; 
and although it was alluded to by Baron Humboldt, it had never been 
correctly drawn, or even accurately described before the visit of 
M. Nebel. The neighbouring Indians, even, had scarcely seen it, 
and considerable local knowledge was required to trace a path to the 
relic through the wild and tangled forest. ^ 

There is no doubt, from the masses of ruins spread over the plain, 
that this city was more than a mile and a half in circuit. Although 

- * The productions here are vanilla, sarsaparilla, pepper, wax, cotton, coffee, tobacco, a 
variety of valuable woods, and sugar, produced annually from canes, which it is neces- 
sary to plant only every seven or eight years. 



68 



ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 




Pyramid of Papantla. 

there seems good reason to believe that it was abandoned by its 
builders after the conquest, there has still been time enough both for 
the growth of the forest in so warm and prolific a climate, and for the 
gradual destruction of the buildings by the seasons and other causes. 
Indeed, huge trees, trailing plants, and parasite vines have struck 
their roots among the crannies and joints of the remaining pyramid, 
and, in a few years more, will consign even that remnant to the com- 
mon fate of the rest of the city. 

" The above plate presents a view of the pyramid, (called by the 
natives, " El Tajin,") as seen by Nebel after he had cleared it of 
trees and foliage. It consists of seven stories, each following the 
same angle of inclination, and each terminated, as at Xochicalco, by 
a frieze and cornice. The whole of these bodies are constructed of 
sand-stone, neatly squared and joined, and covered, to the depth of 
three inches, with a strong cement, which appears, from the remains 
of colour in many places, to have been entirely painted. The pyra- 
mid measures precisely one hundred and twenty feet on every side, 



RUINS OF MISANTLA. 



69 



r^T-\ 




Pyramid of Misantla. 

and is ascended, in front, by a stairway of fifty-seven steps,* divided 
in three places by small box-like recesses or niches, two feet in depth, 
similar to those which are seen perforating the frieze of each of the 
bodies. This stairway terminates at the top of the sixth story, the 
seventh appearing (although in ruins) to have been unlike the rest, 
and hollow. Here, most probably, was the shrine of the divinity and 
the place of sacrifice."! 

With the following account of Misantla, we close our extracts from 
the entertaining and instructive work of Mr. Mayer. 

" Passing by the Island of Sacrificios, I will now describe the ruins 
that were discovered as recently as 1835, adjacent to Misantla, near 
the city of Jalapa, and not very far from the direct road to the 
capital. 

" The work from which I extract my information is the Mosaico 
Mexicano, to which it was contributed, I believe, by Don Isidrio 
Gondra. 

" On a lofty ridge of mountains in the canton of Misantla, there is 
a hill called Estillero, (distant some thirty imles from Jalapa,) near 



* Nebel does not give the elevation, but says there are fifty-seven steps to the top o'" 
the sixth story, each step measuring one foot in height. 
t Vide Humboldt, vol. ii. 345,— and Nebel. 



70 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 

which lies a mountain covered with a narrow strip of table-land, per- 
fectly isolated from the surrounding country by steep rocks and inac- 
cessible barrancas. Beyond these dells and precipices there is a lofty 
wall of hills, from the summit of one of which the sea is distinctly 
visible in the direction of Nautla. The only parts of the country by 
which this plain is accessible, are the slopes of Estillero : on all other 
sides the solitary mountain seems to have been separated from the 
neighbouring land by some violent earthquake that sunk the earth to 
an unfathomed depth. 

" On this recluded and isolated eminence, are situated the remains 
of an ancient city. As you approach the plain by the slopes of Estil- 
lero, a broken wall of large stones, united by a weak cement, is first 
observable. This apears to have served for protection to a circular 
plaza, in the centre of which is a pyramid eighty feet high, forty-nine 
feet front, and forty-two in depth. 

" The account does not state positively whether this edifice is con- 
structed of stone, but it is reasonable to suppose that it is so, from 
the wall found around the plaza, and the remains which will be sub- 
sequently mentioned. It is divided into three stories, or rather, there 
are three still remaining. On the broadest front a stairway leads to 
the second body, which, in turn, is ascended at the side, while the 
top of the third is reached by steps cut in the corner edge of the pyra- 
mid. In front of the teocalli, on the second story, are two pilastral 
columns, which may have formed part of a staircase ; but this portion 
of the pyramid, and especially the last body, is so overgrown with 
trees that its outline is considerably injured. On the very top, (driving 
its roots into the spot that was doubtless formerly the holy place of 
the temple,) there is a gigantic tree, which from its immense size in 
this comparatively high and temperate region, denotes a long period 
since the abandonment of the altar where it grows. 

"At the periphery of the circular plaza around this pyramid, com- 
mence the remains of a town, extending northerly in a straight line 
for near a league. Immense square blocks of stone buildings, sepa- 
rated by streets at the distance of about three hundred yards from 
each other, mark the sites of the ancient habitations, fronting upon 
four parallel highways. In some of the houses the walls are still three 
or four feet high, but of most of them there is nothing but an outline 
tracery of the mere foundations. On the south, there are the remains 
of a long and narrow wall, which defended the city in that quarter. 

" North of the town there is a tongue of land, occupied in the centre 
by a mound, or cemetery. On the left slope of the hill by which the 
ruins are reached, there are, also, twelve circular sepulchres, two 
yards and a half in diameter, and as many high ; the walls are all 



RUINS OF PALENQUE. 71 

of neatly cut stone, but the cement with which they were once joined 
has almost entirely disappeared. In these sepulchres several bodies 
were found, parts of which were in tolerable preservation. 

" Two stones, a foot and a half long by half a foot wide, were dis- 
covered, bearing hieroglyphics, which are described, in general terms, 
as 'resembling the usual hieroglyphics of the Indians.' Another 
figure was found, representing a man standing ; and another, cut out 
of a firm but porous stone, which was intended to portray a person 
sitting cross-legged, with the arms also crossed, resting on his knees. 
This, however, was executed in a very inferior style. Near it, were 
discovered many domestic utensils, which were carried to Vera Cruz, 
whence they have been dispersed, perhaps to the four quarters of the 
globe. 

"It is thus, in the neglect of all antiquities in Mexico, in the midst 
of her political distractions and bloody revolutions, that every vestige 
of her former history will gradually pass to foreign countries, instead 
of enriching the cabinets of her university, and stimulating the in- 
quisitiveness of her scientific students." 

In the year 1841 the liveliest interest was excited in the public 
mind of our country, by the appearance of Mr. Stephens's eloquent 
work entitled, " Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and 
Yucatan." " He visited," says a cotemporary writer,* u the cities of 
Copan and Palenque, besides several other localities, abounding in 
ancient ruins, of which his narrative contains a vivid description. 

" These cities of a forgotten empire are situated in or near Southern 
Mexico and Yucatan, in a region of very luxuriant vegetation ; and 
it is owing to this circumstance that Palenque and Copan have been 
hidden in a dense forest, which is exceedingly difficult to penetrate. 
It is an astonishing fact, that the Spaniards living near are not fully 
acquainted with the ruins. They can throw but little light on the 
subject. 

" Mr. Stephens was informed that the remains of Palenque were 
discovered by a party of Spaniards, in 1750. He thinks their exist- 
ence must have been known to the Indians from time immemorial. 
There is no mention of such a city in any known history, and we have 
no tradition relating to it. It has received the name of Palenque 
from a neighbouring village. No exploration was made before the 
year 1787, when Captain Antonio del Rio visited the ruins ; but his 
report was locked up in the archives of Guatimala until the revolu- 
tion. It then came into the hands of an English gentleman, who 
published a translation in 1822. Dupaix'swork appeared in France 

* G. Harding, Esq., in Young People's Book. 



72 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 

in 1834. Shortly afterwards, Lord Kingsborough produced an "Ac- 
count of Palenque, and other Mexican Antiquities," which sold for 
the sum of eight hundred dollars per copy. 

" It will hardly be deemed necessary to enter into a diffuse and 
elaborate description of the remains of houses, palaces, altars, statues, 
pyramids, and temples. It is impossible to contemplate such monu- 
ments of ancient art, without wondering at the skill, taste, and mecha- 
nical power of a people, who, we have every reason to believe, used 
tools of wood and stone, instead of instruments of iron. 

" Among the ruins, we are struck with the features delineated in 
the sculptured images. At first sight, we might conclude that such 
were the mere results of fancy ; but a glance at the Indians found by 
the Spaniards in this portion of the world, tends to show that the 
ancient people of Mexico bore some resemblance to these statues. 
The flat head, which is the prominent point of notice, can be ex- 
plained from the custom which many American Indians have of com- 
pressing the cranium in infancy. All the antiquities of Central 
America abound in hieroglyphics, which doubtless record the history 
of ancient nations. The remains of idols appear in many places. 
These are adorned with head ornaments, and in some instances are 
not unlike those of the Egyptians. The palaces and temples are 
mostly in a ruinous condition, and consist of a number of apartments, 
opening into courts and quadrangles. Many of the handsome edifices 
stand on pyramidal elevations. The entrance to most of these palaces 
is by a staircase, with a doorway at the upper part, but no doors have 
as yet been discovered. The only stone statue found at Palenque 
was ten feet six inches high. Mr. Stephens thinks that it bears a 
strong resemblance to the Egyptian statues. It is ornamented with 
earrings, and other representations of jewels. Several of the altars 
are in a nearly perfect state, and display an evident regard to archi- 
tectural embellishment ; and it is somewhat singular, that on one of 
the tablets there is sculptured a cross, before which two suppliants 
appear to be kneeling. This circumstance has given rise to many 
learned speculations with regard to Palenque. Dupaix accounts for 
the appearance of the cross, from the fact that it had a symbolical 
meaning among ancient nations before the time of our Saviour. The 
hieroglyphics seem to be almost Egyptian in their style and charac- 
ter ; at any rate, it is probable that they are constructed on a similar 
system to those that have been discovered near the banks of the 
Nile. 

" As ocular demonstration, when practicable, is in all cases to 
be preferred to mere description, it will not, probably, be deemed 
inappropriate, by way of illustrating this portion of our subject, to pre- 




G 



Monument at Oopan. 

10 



RUINS OF PALENQUE. 75 

sent the reader with an engraving of one of the most remarkable of the 
idolatrous monuments of Central America. The sketch from which this 
engraving is taken was drawn for Mr. Stephens, the celebrated tra- 
veller. He states that it forms a prominent object in the ruins of Copan, 
and that it is situated at the foot of a wall which rises in steps to an 
elevation of thirty or forty feet. The height of this singular monument 
is eleven feet nine inches ; its breadth about three feet on each side, and 
it stands on a pedestal which must have been seven feet square. A little 
above the centre of the north side, which is here represented, is a 
sculptured face, presumed to be a portrait of some king or hero, who 
had probably been deified after his death. King Solomon said, ' there 
is nothing new under the sun;' and here we see an instance in point; 
for the image on this monument is that of a person who wore mous- 
taches, as do men of fashion of the present day. Beneath the portrait 
are seen the hands of the image placed upon the breast, and they are 
apparently very well formed. The other parts of the front of the 
monument, as well as the three remaining sides, are richly sculptured 
with strange figures, kingly crowns, and what appear to be symboli- 
cal representations of ancient customs, fables, or events. Within 
twelve feet stands an altar of colossal size, formed, like the monu- 
ment itself, of a soft gritty stone, which had once been painted red, 
as some few vestiges of the pigment are now to be seen. This altar 
is ornamented with a death's head, and other gloomy symbols, and 
its top is cut into grooves or channels, supposed to have been in- 
tended to carry off the blood of human or animal victims immolated 
in sacrifice. The proximity of such a structure to the monument we 
have described, must surely strengthen the impression that the 
sculptured portrait is that of some object of worship. 

" It is remarkable, also, that in many parts of the South American 
continent, pyramids remain to this day that are well and uniformly 
built of solid stone. In this particular, an identity of taste is pre- 
sented between the unknown people of Palenque and those of early 
Asia. 

" Some idea of the remote antiquity of Palenque may be formed from 
the fact, that its ruins are absolutely concealed by the thickness of 
the surrounding forests, while the very roofs of its houses, palaces, 
and temples, have been covered by the action of the elements and the 
falling of leaves, with a sufficient depth of mould to bear a thick wood 
of trees. Some of the largest, too, having been cut down and exa- 
mined, indicated, by the concentric circles in their trunks, that they 
were several centuries old. And yet these trees must have commenced 
their growth when the city was as deserted and as desolate as it is at 
the present day. 




76 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 

AVING examined the condition and ex 
tent of the ruins of Palenque, let us pro- 
ceed to inquire, as far as possible, at 
•■what period, and by what people, these 
cities were built. With regard to the 
former, many conjectures have been 
made, and the data upon which to form 
any rational conclusions are extremely 
" vague. Dupaix gives to the ruins an 
antediluvian origin, and in support of 
this opinion quotes the fact of the great 
quantity of earth under which many portions are buried. This Mr. 
Stephens shows to be improbable, for he removed a portion of this 
earth, which was rather loose, in a short time. He does not consider 
Palenque of such great antiquity as many imagine ; but he thinks that 
the city was the work of a people who occupied the country a short 
time previous to the invasion of the Spaniards. This supposition is 
founded on the circumstances of the climate and the luxuriance of 
the soil, being very destructive to all productions of art ; while the 
discovery of wooden beams in a state of perfect preservation, would 
seem to strengthen such an opinion. But it is recorded that Cortes 
passed within a few miles of the ruins; and it is probable, if they had 
been inhabited, that he would have known the fact, and have visited 
them. It is, therefore, with our present insufficient knowledge, im- 
possible to fix upon any precise period of habitation to these antiqui- 
ties. We may, by a comparison of the idols, hieroglyphics, and 
buildings, with similar remains in the old world, strive to identify 
them, and thus deduce an origin for the ancient Mexicans. They 
do not resemble any of the works of the Greeks or Romans ; hence 
we must go to Asia or Africa for further comparisons. The archi- 
tecture of Japan and India appears to be of an entirely different 
kind from that of Central America, the former exhibiting vast exca- 
vations in the earth, which never occur in the latter. In the next 
place, we apply to the ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, or Carthagi- 
nians, and here we are most likely to obtain the source of the earliest 
inhabitants of Central America. The former countries abound in 
statues, pyramids, and many other architectural remains, to which 
some of the relics in Palenque and other neighbouring cities seem to 
bear an affinity. Not only do the mounds, pyramids, forms of build- 
ing, and hieroglyphics, exhibit an identity of taste, but it is remark- 
able that, at Durango, in the southern part of Mexico, mummies have 
been discovered in the interior of pyramids, bandaged and preserved 
in a similar manner to those of Egynt. . Near the mummies, too, 



RUINS OF PALENQUE. 77 

were fcund beads, a flint poniard, and ornaments of bone resembling 
polished ivory. Now, although such things have not been discovered 
at Palenque, still, as it is probable that the same nation inhabited all 
the cities of that region of the American continent, the relics at 
Durango may very fairly be referred to, in the inquiry under con- 
sideration. Let it be remembered, also, that the Mexicans have a 
tradition of some universal deluge, resembling that of Noah ; and 
they relate a circumstance that occurred on the subsidence of the 
waters, precisely similar to the scriptural account of the dove and the 
olive branch. The ancient Mexican calendar also, was not unlike, 
in several of its features, to the calendars of Egypt and of Asia. 

" The various reasons which have here been assigned, all tending 
to show the probability of a kindred taste, and kindred manners and 
worship, between the long buried people of Central America and the 
ancient inhabitants of some parts of Asia, and perhaps of Egypt, seem 
naturally to point to the conclusion, that this continent was originally 
settled by emigrants from the East. The Phoenicians, and the Car- 
thaginians who sprang from them, were both celebrated for their ex- 
tensive commerce, and also for the secrecy they observed in not 
allowing neighbouring nations to know the more distant places to 
which they traded. Is it not possible — nay, is it not probable — that 
one or both of these mercantile nations visited America? And if they 
did, the origin of these ruins, and their resemblance to the old struc- 
tures of the east, are at once accounted for. When the Carthaginian 
fleet was destroyed by the Romans, all the ships were burnt, except 
some which were absent from Carthage. Perhaps it is not too wild 
a conjecture to be hazarded, that the vessels which were not in port 
might have been at some Carthaginian colony in America. All this, 
however, with other and similar speculations, must be considered 
doubtful, as no strong light has yet been thrown upon the subject, to 
guide us back through the dimness of antiquity. A vast and wonder- 
ful field lies open to the traveller, the historian, the philosopher, and, 
indeed, to every explorer into the past. The entire question of the 
origin and characteristics of the people of Palenque and other neigh- 
bouring cities, seems pregnant with instruction and interest, as de- 
veloping a most important feature, and probably a very eventful 
period in the annals of the human race." 

In 1842, B. M. Norman, Esq., of New Orleans, published his 
"Rambles in Yucatan," by which the public were again astonished 
and delighted with a new disclosure of wonderful ruins at Chi-Chen, 
Kahbah, Zayi, and Uxmal. The stupendous ruins described by Mr 
Norman are evidently the woik of the same race who built the tem- 
ples and pyramids of Palenque and Copan. They were scattered over 



78 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 

the northern part of the Isthmus of Yucatan, between twenty and 
twenty-one degrees of north latitude, at Uxmal, Meridah, Zayi, Chi- 
Chen, and Kahbah, and were for the most part, previously unex- 
plored. Mr. Norman thus describes the ruins of Zayi : 

" The ruins of Zayi are situated in the midst of a succession of 
beautiful hills, forming around them, on every side, an enchanting 
landscape. 

" The principal one is composed of a single structure, an immense 
pile, facing the south, and standing upon a slight natural elevation. 
The first foundation is now so broken that its original form cannot be 
fully determined ; but it probably was that of a parallelogram. Its 
front wall shows the remains of rooms and ceilings, with occasional 
pillars, which, no doubt, supported the corridors. The height of 
this wall is about twenty feet, and, as near as I was able to measure 
around its base, (owing to the accumulation of ruins,) it was ascer- 
tained to be two hundred and sixty-eight feet long, and one hundred 
and sixteen wide. 

" In the centre of this foundation stands the main building, the west- 
tern half only remaining, with a portion of the steps, outside, leading 
to the top. This part shows a succession of corridors, occupying 
the whole front, each supported by two pillars, with plain square 
caps and plinths, and intervening spaces, filled with rows of small 
ornamented pillars. In the rear of these corridors are rooms of small 
dimensions and angular ceilings, without any light except that which 
the front affords. Over these corridors, or pillars, is a fine moulding 
finish, its angle ornamented with a hook similar to those of Chi-Chen. 
Above this moulding is a finish of small plain round pillars, or stand- 
ards, interspersed with squares of fine ornamental carvings; the cen- 
tral fagade showing the remains of more elaborate work, concentrated 
within a border, the arrangement of which is lost. There is an evi- 
dent analogy existing between these ornaments and those of Kahbah, 
but order is less apparent. I could discover no resemblance what- 
ever to those of Chi-Chen. 

" Over these rooms of the main building is another terrace, or 
foundation, in the centre of which is a building in similar ruins to 
those under it; having, also, broken steps leading to the top. It 
stands upon a foundation, apparently, of six to eight feet in height, 
occupying about two-thirds of the area ; the residue, probably, form- 
ing a promenade. There are three doorways yet remaining, the 
lintels and sides of which are broken, and which have caused the 
walls above to fall down. The walls of this part of the edifice are 
constructed of hewn stone, without any signs of ornament. A plain 
finished moulding runs through the centre ; portions of the cornice 



RUINS OF ZAYI. 



79 




Ruins of ZayL 



still remain, with three or four pieces of flat projecting stones, which 
formed a part of the top finish. 

" The whole extent of the rear is covered with confused piles of 
ruins, overgrown with trees. Near by these are fragments of walls 
and rooms, with a few ornaments yet remaining about them. Some 
of the rooms appear to have been single, and apart from all other 
buildings. There are also various mounds in the vicinity. 

"A few rods south are the remains of a single high wall, with 
numerous square apertures, like pigeon-holes. Its foundation is 
elevated ; around which the broken walls and ceilings are to be seen. 
The summits of the neighbouring hills are capped with gray broken 
walls for many miles around. I discovered no hieroglyphics or 
paintings of any kind ; neither the extraordinary skill displayed in 
the ornamental carvings, as at Chi-Chen. 

" On my route to these ruins I made digressions from the road, 
and found, on all sides, numerous remains of walls and ceilings ; 
also, mounds and small pyramids, covered with the wild vegetation 
of the country. My time being limited to a day, I left these interest- 
ing reminiscences of an unknown people under the cover of night, 
and returned, wearied with my day's labour, to Nohcacab." 

Our limits will not permit us to follow Mr. Norman in his minute 
description of the ruins of the other cities in this remote district of 
the Mexican republic, but we cannot take leave of him without 



80 



ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 



quoting the following remarks on a moonlight view of the ruins of 
Uxmal. 

" A moonlight scene from the Governor's House is one of the most 
enchanting sights I ever witnessed. The moon had risen about half 
way up from the horizon, and was now throwing its strong silver 
light over the whitened fagade of our house. Castles, palaces, and 
falling pyramids were distinctly to be traced in the foreground. At 
a distance, walls and mounds, rising above the green verdure of the 
land, looked like a multitude of small islands in a calm summer's 
sea. All was quiet but the chirp of the cricket, or the occasional 
scream of some night-bird of the wood. It was a scene of natural 
beauty such as I never have seen realized upon the canvass of the 
artist, or even in the pages of poetry." 

We will linger no longer among the interesting ruins of the ancient 
empires of Mexico, but proceed at once to our account of the con- 
quest by Cortes. 




Ruins of Uxmal. 




The landing of Cortes at Vera Cruz- 



CHAPTER V. 



HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST BY CORTES. 



HE island of Cuba was conquered in 
1511, by the Spaniards under Velas- 
quez, who immediately turned his at- 
tention to the seas westward of his 
island, in the hope of verifying the 
prediction of Columbus, that sailing 
to the westward would result in still 
further discoveries. One of the ex- 
peditions prepared by him, and com- 
manded by a wealthy colonist, named Cordova, discovered the pe- 
ninsula of Yucatan, and the country which was shortly to be the 
scene of the wonderful exploits of Cortes. This success caused great 
exultation in the breast of Velasquez, although its commander, Cor- 
dova, lost his life by a wound received in battle with the natives, 
who slew a large portion of his followers. Juan de Grijalva, the 
nephew of the governor, left Cuba in April, 1517, and spent five 

11 (81) 




82 CONQUEST BY CORTES. 

months in cruising along the coast, trading with the natives for gold 
trinkets. He landed at a small island, where the Spaniards first saw 
a human sacrifice, whence they gave it the name of the Island of Sa- 
crificios. He also touched at another small island, which he named 
San Juan de Ulloa. From this place he despatched one of his officers, 
Pedro de Alvarado, to Cuba, to give Velasquez an account of his 
success. Grijalva continued his voyage as far as Panuco, whence he 
judged it advisable to return to Cuba. He had explored a hitherto 
unknown coast of several hundred miles in extent, the wealth and 
fertility of which rendered it worthy of the name of New Spain, thus 
early conferred upon it. 

Alvarado's information so transported Velasquez, that he despatched 
a messenger to the king of Spain, with an account of his efforts for 
the extension of the empire, and their glorious results, and at the 
same time began to prepare a powerful armament for the conquest 
of these new lands, the command of which he determined to give to 
a man possessed of the requisite ability and resolution to lead it suc- 
cessfully, and at the same time so gentle and tractable in spirit as to 
be a passive instrument in his own hands. He was too jealous of 
Grijalva to intrust him with the charge, and he could find no one 
who united in himself the incongruous qualities he was seeking. At 
length Andreas Duero, his own secretary, and Amador de Lares, 
the royal treasurer of Cuba, proposed to him the name of Cortes, 
who had given many proofs of his capacity for the command, 
whose popularity was exceedingly great, whose fortune would mate- 
rially assist in fitting out the expedition, and whose gratitude it was 
supposed, would secure his fidelity to Velasquez. The governor was 
persuaded, sent for Cortes, and appointed him captain-general of the 
expedition. 

Cortes received his commission with every demonstration of re- 
spect and gratitude, and immediately erected his standard before his 
own door, assumed a military dress somewhat befitting his rank, and 
exerted his utmost influence and activity in persuading his friends to 
engage in the service, and in urging forward the preparations for the 
voyage. All his own funds, and all the money he could raise by 
mortgaging his lands and Indians, were expended in the purchase of 
military stores and provisions, and it was afterwards contended that 
two-thirds of the expenses of the expedition were borne by him. 
The change in the manners and habits of Cortes, which came sud- 
denly over him, was noticed by the governor with some distrust, which 
his disappointed competitors were quick to perceive, and malicious 
enough to turn to his disadvange. Their insinuations had such an 
effect upon the mind of the governor that he determined to depose 



CORTES SAILS FROM CUBA. 83 

Cortes from the command, but that officer had already noticed the 
altered feelings of the governor toward him, and by the advice of 
Lares and Duero, determined to outwit his patron. He accordingly 
hastened forward his preparations, shipped all the stores that had 
been collected, brought all his officers on board, and set sail on the 
night of the 18th of November, 1518, taking leave of the governor 
on the following morning, by a wave of his hand, as he stood in his 
boat, out of reach of that worthy functionary. From St. Jago he 
sailed to Trinidad, on the same side of the island, with a view to 
add to his stock of military stores and provisions, which he had not 
had time to complete. He afterwards sailed to the Havana, for the 
same purpose. At each of these places he was joined by additional 
recruits. Many cavaliers of distinction, some of whom had accom- 
panied Grijalva, entered his ranks at Trinidad. 

F these are named Pedro de Alvarado, Christoval 
de Olid, Alonzo de Avila, Juan Velasquez de 
Leon, Alonzo Hernandez de Puertocerro, and 
Gonzalo de Sandoval. The conduct of Cortes 
in departing so suddenly filled the mind of Ve- 
lasquez with still more serious apprehensions, and 
he wrote to the governors of both the places at 
which he stopped, to seize the captain-general 
and send him back. The governors, however, were both well dis- 
posed towards Cortes, and even if they had been otherwise they were 
powerless to effect the governor's purposes so devoted had his fol- 
lowers already become to him. 

The expedition finally left the island of Cuba on the 18th of Fe- 
bruary, 1519. It consisted of eleven vessels, mostly small, and 
without decks, all of which in a few days reached the island of Co- 
zumel in safety, where Cortes landed to review his troops. He had 
five hundred and fifty-three soldiers, and one hundred and ten marines, 
under his command, with sixteen horses, ten brass field-pieces, four 
smaller ones, called falconets, and thirty-two cross-bows ; the most of 
the soldiers were armed with the ordinary steel weapons. They had 
some two hundred Cuba Indians, and last, but in the estimation of the 
adventurers, not least in importance, two ecclesiastics, the licentiate, 
Juan Diaz and father Bartholomew de Olmedo. The inhabitants of 
Cozumel were very friendly, and Cortes remained there nine or ten 
days, endeavouring, by the aid of an interpreter, to argue the natives 
into a belief in Christianity. One of his most potent arguments 
was the tumbling of their idols down the stairs of the great temple. 
An altar was constructed where they had stood, and an image of the 
Virgin and child was placed over it. The natives were horror struck, 




84 



CONQUEST BY CORTES. 




Bartholomew de Olmedo. 

but as their gods did not resent the indignity, they were persuaded 
to be Christians. At Cozumel, Cortes discovered Jeronimo de Agui- 
lar, a man who had been educated for the church, but who having 
been wrecked in 1511, on his passage from Darien to Hispaniola, had 
been seven years in slavery. He spoke the language of the natives 
of Yucatan, and was very useful as an interpreter. 

On the 4th of March, 1519, the fleet set sail from Cozumel, and 
on the 13th entered the Grijalva, or Tabasco river, up which he sailed 
as far as the town of the same name, remarking every where on his 
passage the preparations of the natives to give him battle. On 
reaching Tabasco, he fought his way through great bodies of the In- 
dians, who darkened the air with the flight of their arrows and stones, 
to the open square in the centre of the city. The discharge of fire- 
arms terrified the enemy, who retired from the conflict, leaving Cortes 
to take possession of the country in the name of the king of Spain, 
which he did by giving a large tree three slashes with his sword' 
while they went to prepare for a great battle. Suspecting their in- 
tentions, Cortes, on the following morning, sent out detachments 
under Alvarado, and Francisco de Luva, to reconnoiter, which were 
in great danger of being destroyed by the enemy. They brought 
back on their retreat a few prisoners, however, from whom it was 
ascertained that the whole country was in arms, prepared to assault 
him on the following day. He brought the horses and heavy guns 
from the ships, and determined to anticipate the attack. The com 



DEFEAT OF THE NATIVES. 



65 



mand of his artiliery he gave to Misa, an engineer who had served 
in Italy. 

DIEGO DE ORDAZ was placed at the head 
of the infantry, and he himself led the cavalry, 
which included several of the bravest of his 
band. The cavalry were to make a circuit 
and fall on the rear of the enemy, who were 
encamped in a plain without the city, while 
the infantry and artillery attacked them in 
front. The artillery made sad havoc among 
the dense ranks of the poor natives, who re- 
turned the fire by discharging their arrows and 
stones, while they tried to hide their loss by 
throwing up dust and leaves. Their numbers 
were so immense that the little army seemed 
in danger of being overwhelmed. The en- 
gagement had lasted nearly an hour, and they 
scarcely had room left to work their guns, 
when the cavalry came to the rescue, and 
threw the Indians into disorder. They came 
on through the thick ranks, cleaving the skulls 
of the enemy right and left, and shouting their 
war-cry of "San Jago and San Pedro," a 
circumstance, perhaps, which led the faithful 
to imagine that in the moment of their deliverance they saw the pa- 
tron saint of Spain doing battle for them valiantly on his war-horse. 
Some think it was the tutelar divinity of Cortes, Saint Peter, but 
the honest historian, Bernal Diaz, a participant and chronicler of the 
actions of the conquerors, says that being too great a sinner, he was not 
permitted to see either one or the other of the apostles on this occasion. 
The Indians, panic-stricken at the sudden appearance of the cavalry 
in their rear, and imagining the horse and his rider to be one, were 
immediately thrown into confusion, and when Ordaz made a general 
charge along their line, they fled without resistance. Cortes made 
no pursuit, but drew up his men under a copse of palms to return 
thanks to God for a victory which had cost them but two killed and 
a hundred wounded, while the enemy had fallen by thousands. 

The spirit of the Tabascans was subdued. The chiefs came to 
the camp of the victor with faces expressive of deep contrition, and 
brought him presents of fowls, fish, maize, and numerous gold toys re- 
presenting animals in miniature. For the horses they brought a feast 
of turkeys and roses. They gave Cortes twenty Indian girls, slaves, 
to attend the army. They uttered the words " Culua, Mexico," and 




Diego de Ordaz. 



86 



CONQUEST BY CORTES. 



pointed to the west in reply to questions where the gold came from, 
and as the soldiers had received "no particular satisfaction" at find- 
ing no gold in the town, they were anxious to proceed on the voy- 
age. The eloquence of Father Olmedo having induced the chiefs to 
embrace Christianity, Cortes celebrated their conversion by a mag- 
nificent procession on Palm Sunday, in which thousands of Indians 
participated, to the principal temple. The image of the presiding 
deity was deposed, and that of the Virgin with the infant Saviour 
substituted ; the holy father celebrated mass, and the wondering na- 
tives, according to the chronicles, were affected to tears. " This 
must needs be a great God," they said, " to whom such valiant 
men show such respect." "They hit upon the truth," says De 
Solis, "but mistook in their way of reasoning." Cortes then took 
leave of the cacique and the principal Indians, well satisfied that the 
efficacy of his teachings, if they had not converted them, "had 
brought them so far in the way to salvation, as to desire, or at least 
not to oppose the means of obtaining it."* 

ON the Monday after Palm 
Sunday, the flotilla set sail from 
Tabasco, and on Holy Thursday, 
April 20, 1519, it arrived at San 
Juan de Ulloa. Here a light 
pirogue pushed off from the shore, 
and steered for the ship of Cor- 
tes, which they entered not only 
without fear, but with the air of 
ease and confidence which marks 
good breeding. Their language, 
unfortunately, Aguilar could not 
understand, but they were re- 
leased from this dilemma by 
Donna Marina, one of the twenty 
slave girls given to Cortes by the Tabascans. She was a Mexican 
by birth, and in her captivity she had learned the Tabascan language, 
so that, by means of a double interpretation, the Spaniards were able 
to communicate with the natives. She was a girl of great talent, and 
she soon relieved Aguilar of part of his duty as interpreter, by learn- 
ing the Spanish language herself. Cortes made her his interpreter, 
then his secretary, and finally his mistress. She was universally be- 
loved by the army, and her name, Malinche, was always pronounced 
with tenderness by the conquered races, who were not long in learn- 
ing that they met with sympathy in her noble, generous heart. 

* De Solis's History of the Conquest, vol. i. Book I. 




LANDING OF CORTES AT VERA CRUZ. 



87 



By means of his interpreter, Cortes learned that the Aztec visiters 
to his ship were ordered by the governor of the province to ascer- 
tain what he wanted on their coasts, and to promise to supply what- 
ever he required. He told them that he wished to make the ac- 
raintance of the people of that country, and that he would do them 
£io injury. He gave them some cut-glass beads, and an entertain- 
ment, after which they took their leave, promising that Teuhtlile, the 
governor of the province under Montezuma, would pay him a visit 
shortly. On the next day, Friday, April 21st, Cortes landed his 
troops, his horses, and the artillery, selected a camp, and began to 
fortify it, the Indians assisting him very much in the labour. 

lEUHTLILE and his attendants had an 
interview with him the next day, in 
which he treated them with much 
ceremony, but immediately preferred 
a request which gave them great un- 
easiness. This was, to be conducted 
without loss of time into the presence 
of their master. Teuhtlile informed 
him that a statement of his demand 
should be sent to the emperor, and 
that an answer would be returned in 
a few days. He received some pre- 
sents from Cortes for the emperor, and 
gave him some for his king in the name of that prince. Observing 
one of the governor's attendants engaged in drawing, Cortes looked 
upon his labour, and was astonished to see a representation on canvass 
of the Spaniards, their arms, costume, and objects of interest con- 
nected with them. The picture writing of the country was explained 
to him, and gave him much pleasure. He ordered the army to go 
through its exercises, the cavalry to be exercised on the beach, and 
the artillery to be fired into the woods, where the balls made great 
havoc among the thick foliage ; and drew the attention of the artist 
to the ships. All these excited much terror in the mind of Teuhtlile 
and his followers, but a clear account of the whole was painted out 
and despatched to the emperor. 

Montezuma now commenced a course of conduct marked by 
timidity and irresolution, which would be altogether unaccountable 
in so brave and mighty a sovereign, did we not recollect the Aztec 
proneness to superstition, and the story of Quetzalcoatl, whose pre- 
diction (that strangers with white skins like his own, would come 
from the East in the future, to conquer and possess the country,) was 
constantly present to his mind. There could be no question that 




88 CONQUEST BY CORTES. 

he looked upon the Spaniards, from the hour of their first visit, under 
Grijalva, as the men who were to bring about this fatal revolution ; 
and the accounts of the dreadful lesson of their might taught to the 
Tabascans, had been transmitted to him, and added to his disquieting 
apprehensions. He refused to allow the strangers to visit him, but 
endeavoured to forestall hostile feelings on their parts by so magnifi- 
cent a present as should prove his friendship and secure their grati- 
tude. It was composed of finely wrought cotton stuffs, and many 
splendid specimens of the feather-work of the country, with a mis- 
cellaneous collection of jewels, and articles of gold and silver, among 
which were two plates, " as large as carriage wheels ;" one of gold, 
representing the sun, worth more than two hundred thousand dollars, 
and another of silver, typical of the moon. The Spaniards were 
delighted with the present, but Cortes did not so well like the 
message which accompanied it, that Montezuma was happy to 
hear of the existence of his royal brother of Spain, and wished to 
be considered his friend, yet he could not come to see the Spa- 
niards, and it was too far for them to come and see him. He there- 
fore hoped they would depart, and carry his respects to his brother, 
their monarch. 

The Spanish general coolly answered that he could not leave the 
country without being able to say that he had seen the king with his 
own eyes ; and the ambassadors departed, carrying a poor present 
from Cortes. Montezuma at first resolved to sacrifice the strangers 
to his gods, but his fears immediately overcame his resolution, and 
he sent them a second magnificent present, with the message that he 
could not permit any thing more to be said as to the interview. 
Cortes thanked the ambassadors for their present, and returned a 
more decided message to Montezuma, to the same effect as before. 
The Mexicans evinced surprise and disgust at his conduct, and with- 
drew from all intercourse with him. 

ORTES now determined to throw off all con- 
nexion with Velasquez, whose partisans in the 
expedition gave him an opportunity, by cla- 
mouring for the return of the expedition to 
Cuba. The captain-general pretended to yield 
to their commands, and ordered the embarka- 
tion of the army, when his own party flocked 
to his tent, and implored him not to abandor 
an enterprise so successfully begun. He therefore revoked the forme 
order, and fortlnvith commenced the establishment of a new city 
which was called Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, " The Rich Town o* 
the True Cross." Alcaldes and other officers were appointed, and 




STRATAGEM OF CORTES. 89 

the whole city government fixed, although the first stone of it was as 
yet to be laid. Cortes then appeared before the council and resigned 
his authority. Whereupon the council unanimously appointed him, in 
the king's name, captain-general and chief justice of the colony. Thus 
he substituted the king of Spain for the governor of Cuba as the 
source of his authority. While these ceremonies were being enacted, 
a deputation arrived from Cempoalla, the capital city of the Totonacs, 
whose cacique invited Cortes to visit the city. The possibility of 
dividing the empire against itself instantly suggested itself to Cortes, 
who marched to Cempoalla while the city of Villa Rica was slowly 
erected. The Spaniards gained the good will of the Totonacs; 
although they put an end to their human sacrifices by destroying their 
gods before their eyes. The cacique also gave Cortes, by his daily 
conversation, a great insight into the condition of the empire, which, 
groaning under the heavy taxes caused by the lavish expenditure of 
Montezuma, with its nobles disgusted by his arrogance, only waited 
an opportunity for assailing the Aztecs with success. 

Cortes, being ready to march into the interior, returned first to Villa 
Rica, where a Spanish vessel had arrived in his absence, with a rein- 
forcement of twelve volunteers and two horses. These joined his 
standard, and informed him that Velasquez had received the royal 
authority to found a colony in New Spain. Cortes then determined 
to send his two friends, Puertocerro and Montejo, to Spain, witi. 
two letters, one written by himself, the other by the authorities of 
Villa Rica ; nearly all of the gold that had been collected ; and the 
presents of Montezuma, a richer freight than had ever yet left the 
shores of the New World. The chief business of the voyage, however, 
was to secure the appointment of Cortes as captain-general of the 
colony. The pilot was ordered to make at once for Spain, and by 
all means to avoid touching at Cuba. 

The departure of Puertocerro and Montejo filled the minds of 
many of his followers with longings for their homes, and Cortes soon 
after discovered a conspiracy, formed by some soldiers and sailors, to 
seize a vessel and return to Cuba. The licentiate, Diaz, was impli- 
cated in the plot, and would have been put to death had he not been 
a priest. As it was, two of the ringleaders were executed, and the 
pilot had his feet cut off. This determined Cortes to destroy his 
ships, and finding his most trusty followers similarly disposed, he 
obtained a report from the pilots that the vessels were no longer sea- 
worthy, and then caused them to be stripped of their apparel, broken 
in pieces, and sunk. This bold measure added one hundred and 
ten sailors to his force, many of whom became valiant soldiers, and 
all of whom were of great use. 

h2 12 




90 CONQUEST BY CORTES. 

^ ORTES left a considerable force as a gar- 
\t^[ / rison at Villa Rica, under his trustworthy 
esjfr \ j friend, Juan de Escalante, and set out on 
" ,-j- his march inland from the country of the 
Totonacs, August 16, 1519. His army numbered 
four hundred Spaniards on foot, and fifteen horses, 
accompanied by thirteen hundred Cempoallan 
warriors and a thousand tamanes, or Indian 
body slaves, who were employed in laborious offices. Leaving the 
Tierra Caliente, they began the ascent of the mountains which sepa- 
rate it from the plain of Anahuac, and in a few days they reached 
the province of Tlascala, the only nation of Anahuac which the fierce 
Aztecs had not been able to bring under their yoke. From their 
known enmity to Montezuma and his race, the Cempoallans had 
confidently counted upon a favourable reception and alliance with 
them, but in this they were sorely disappointed. The supreme 
power in Tlascala was exercised by four caciques, who held their 
courts in different quarters of the same city, independent of each 
other, yet united in the strictest alliance. Around them were ga- 
thered the nobles and people. On the approach of the Spaniards, a 
consultation was had respecting the treatment to be given them, and 
the council was divided, for a time, between two opinions. Some 
were disposed to welcome them in the hope of overthrowing the 
empire of Montezuma by their aid; others justly answered that the 
Spaniards were the common enemies of both races, and that they 
ought to be destroyed immediately. Hostilities were at length 
resolved upon, and the young chief Xicotencatl, the son of one of the 
four caciques, led the armies of his country to battle. The annals 
of warfare record not the name of a more determined leader ; and 
the world never produced a braver army. The first battle was 
fought on the first two days of September, 1519, and the Spaniards 
triumphed, but with the utmost difficulty. " Every man among us 
did his duty," says Bernal Diaz, "and we fought away like brave 
warriors, for in all truth we were placed in greater jeopardy this time 
than we had ever been before." Cortes sent them an offer of peace 
next morning, to which the young general, Xicotencatl, answered 
that they would make peace after they had satiated themselves with 
the flesh of the Spaniards, and honoured the gods with the sacrifice 
of their blood and hearts. 

Xicotencatl, on the fifth of September, fought a second battle with 
the Spaniards, equally severe with the first, and on the night of the 
succeeding day, a third attack was made. There was not one of 
the Spaniards who had not by this time received one or more wounds. 



TREATY WITH THE TLASCALANS. 91 

Some of their number, and one of their horses had been slain. But 
the muskets and artillery of the Spaniards had been dreadfully de- 
structive, and the rulers of the Tlascalans felt disposed to accept the 
peace which Cortes had so constantly offered. 

They came to this resolution at a fortunate time for Cortes, whose 
soldiers were exceedingly mutinous, charging him with causing their 
destruction by his rash course in regard to the ships, and demanding 
to be led back to Vera Cruz. Cortes and Father Olmedo were them- 
selves suffering with fever, yet neither the chief nor his men durst 
lay aside their arms for a moment. The most zealous of the followers 
of the conqueror could not refrain from thinking " what would be the 
final issue of this campaign, and if they once got out of the present 
snare, where they were next to bend their steps ; for the idea of 
penetrating to Mexico appeared to them perfectly absurd, when they 
considered the great power of that state. If even they succeeded in 
making the same good terms with the people of Tlascala as they had 
done with the Cempoallans, what would become of them if they ever 
came to an engagement with the great armies of Montezuma."* 
Cortes replied to their statements, that what had been done had 
been done for the best, and that retreat in their present circumstances 
would be certain death. On a renewal of their remonstrances, he 
put an end to the cabals by the heroic answer, that in any event, it 
was better to die like a brave warrior, than to live a coward 

TREATY with the Tlascalans was readily 
concluded, and on the 23d of September 
they entered their chief city, a large and 
populous town, compared by Cortes to 
Grenada, in Spain. The Tlascalans 
bound themselves to be vassals of the 
king of Spain, and to assist Cortes in his 
expedition, while he engaged to defend 
their persons and property, and took their 
state under his protection. While the 
negotiations were pending, a communica- 
tion was received from Montezuma himself, who entreated Cortes to 
put no faith in the Tlascalans, who were treacherous barbarians, and 
invited him in cordial terms to visit his capital, pointing out the road 
through the city of Cholula as the most convenient. Cortes made 
many efforts to gain the good will of the Tlascalan chiefs, and suc- 
ceeded to a great extent, a result to be attributed to the prudence of 
Father Olmedo, who persuaded him in their case to leave them their 
idols and superstition, only prohibiting human sacrifices. As soon 

* Bernal Diaz, chapter 66. 




92 



CONQUEST BY CORTES. 




Massacre at Cholula. 



as his men had rested somewhat from their fatigue, he set out for 
Mexico, accompanied by six thousand Tlascalan warriors, who 
earnestly dissuaded him from the attempt, but proved the sincerity 
of their advice by their subsequent devotion. Their approach gave 
Montezuma great alarm, and he set on foot a scheme for massacring 
them in the city of Cholula. Tlascalan vigilance discovered the 
plan, however, and Cortes took a terrible vengeance on the holy 
city. By a stratagem of his own, he seized on the persons of the 
magistrates and chief citizens, and then ordered the whole of his fol- 
lowers, Spaniards, Tlascalans, and Cempoallans to fall upon the dis- 
organized people. The massacre lasted two days. A number of 
the priests and leading citizens shut themselves up in their temples. 
The torch was brought, and the buildings, the garrisons, and the 
gods perished together. At length Cortes released and forgave the 
magistrates, telling them of their intended treachery, requiring them 
to recall the fugitive people, and establish order in the town. 

From Cholula he advanced directly towards the capital of Monte- 
zuma, who behaved at this juncture in a most unworthy manner. He 
sent ambassadors to Cortes with overtures of reconciliation, promising 
him an immense quantity of gold if he would advance no further. 
Cortes, of course, refused, and continued a march, which, toilsome 



ADVANCE OF CORTES TO THE CAPITAL. 



93 




Cortes advancing to the City of Mexico. 

and bitterly cold, was amply rewarded by the sight, which burst sud- 
denly upon them, of the valley of Mexico. We quote the eloquent 
account of Mr. Prescott. " Turning an angle of the sierra, they 
came suddenly upon a view which more than compensated their toils. 
It was that of the valley of Mexico, which with its picturesque as- 
semblage of water, woodland, and cultivated plains, its shining cities 
and shadowy hills, was spread out like some gay and gorgeous pano- 
rama before them. Stretching far away at their feet were seen noble 
forests of oak, sycamore, and cedar; and beyond yellow fields of 
maize, and the towering maguey, intermingled with orchards and 
blooming gardens. In the centre of the great basin were beheld the 
lakes, their borders thickly studded with towns and hamlets ; and in 
the midst, like some Indian empress with her coronal of pearls, the 
fair city of Mexico, with her white towers and pyramidal temples, 
.reposing, as it were, on the bosom of the waters — the far famed 
'Venice of the Aztecs.' "* 

From this time, all that they saw in their journey until their 
entry into Mexico, seemed to the Spaniards like fairy land. Monte- 
zuma had suffered the strangers to advance almost to the gates of the 
capital before he had determined whether to receive them as friends 
or enemies. At length, however, he sent his nephew, Cacama, with a 
train of nobles to escort him to the city. Following his direction, 



* Conquest of Mexico, vol. ii. 47. 



94 CONQUEST BY CORTES. 




Montezuma. 

the Spaniards marched along the margin of the Lake Xochichalco to 
the royal city of Iztapalapan, where they spent the night in most ex- 
cellent quarters. On the morning of the 8th of November, 1519, 
they marched along the causeway towards the capital. They trem- 
bled when they saw that the causeways were intersected at intervals 
by drawbridges through which canoes passed and repassed, for they 
saw that their retreat could at any time be cut off by this means, 
and they had had abundant evidence of the emperor's dislike for 
them, and of the hollowness of his present professions of friendship. 
Cortes marched first with his small body of horse ; next came the 
Spanish foot, about four hundred in number, after them the Indian 
tamenes carrying the baggage, and last of all the Tlascalan warriors, 
in number about five thousand. The inhabitants crowded from the 
city to look at them as they came along the causeway, and as they 
came near to the city they were met by the emperor himself, accom- 
panied by an immense train of nobles, who demeaned themselves in 
his presence as though he were a deity. At length Cortes and the 
emperor stood face to face. The Spanish chieftain accosted him in 
the fashion of Europe, with the most profound reverence. Monte- 
zuma returned the salutation by touching the earth with his hand and 
kissing it, the customary expression of reverence from inferiors to 
those who are above them in rank, and which when used by the 
emperor to the Spaniards, elevated the latter in the minds of the 
wondering Aztecs to a position only inferior to that occupied by 
their gods. 

After the exchange of presents, Montezuma and his attendants 






MEXICAN IDOLS. 95 

withdrew, the Spaniards following them into the city, where they 
were conducted to their quarters, situated in an immense square in 
the centre of the city, adjoining the temple of the great Mexican war 
god. Montezuma was waiting to receive them, and he supplied 
their wants with his characteristic profusion. Next day Cortes visited 
him in his palace, attended by some of his principal officers, and in 
the course of the conversation which ensued, expounded to him some 
of the tenets of his religion, at which the emperor seemed displeased, 
but replied courteously. The intercourse was maintained day after 
day, and the soldiers and citizens began to grow familiar with each 
other. The emperor escorted Cortes through the city, showing to 
him the market-place, the public buildings, and the temple. At the 
request of Cortes, though with great reluctance, Montezuma led them 
into the very sanctuary or tower where the gods were. " Here," 
says Bernal Diaz, "were two altars, highly adorned with richly 
wrought timbers on the roof, and over the altars gigantic figures re- 
sembling very fat men. The one on the right was their war god, 
with a great face and terrible eyes. This figure was entirely covered 
with gold and jewels, and his body bound with golden serpents ; in 
his right hand he held a bow, and in his left a bundle of arrows. Be- 
fore the idol was a pan of incense, with three hearts of human vic- 
tims, which were burning, mixed with copal. The whole of that 
apartment, both walls and floor, was stained with human blood in 
such quantity as to cause a very offensive smell. On the left was the 
other great figure, with a countenance like a bear, and great shining 
eyes of the polished substance whereof their mirrors are made. The 
body of this idol was also covered with jewels. An offering lay be- 
fore him of five human hearts. In this place was a drum of most 
enormous size, the head of which was made of the skins of large ser- 
pents. This instrument, when struck, resounded with a noise that 
could be heard at the distance of two leagues, and so doleful that it 
deserved to be named the music of the infernal regions." 

The first of the deities here described was Huitzilopochtli, the war 
god. Of the other, Tezcatlipoca, who was only inferior to the invisi- 
ble supreme god, and who created the world, Diaz makes this singu- 
lar statement : " He was the god of hell, and the souls of deceased 
Mexicans stood under him." 

This horrible scene filled the pious mind of Cortes with horror, and 
he could not refrain from remonstrating with the emperor upon the 
subject. " I cannot imagine that such a powerful and wise monarch 
as you are, should not have yourself discovered by this time, that 
these idols are not divinities, but evil spirits, called devils. In order 
that you may be convinced of this, and that your papas may satisfy 



96 



CONQUEST BY CORTES. 




themselves of this truth, allow me to erect a cross on the summit of 
this temple ; and in the chapel where stand your Huitzilopochtli and 
Tezcatlipoca, give us a small space that I may place there the image 
of the holy Virgin ; then you will see what terror will seize these idols 
by which you have been so long deluded." 

ONTEZUMA knew what the image of the 
Virgin Mary was ; yet he was very much 
displeased with Cortes's offer, and replied 
in the presence of two papas, whose anger 
was not less conspicuous, " Malinche, could 
I have conjectured that you would have 
' < used such reviling language as you have 
just done, I would certainly not have shown you my gods. In our 
eyes these are good divinities : they preserve our lives, give us 
nourishment, water, and good harvests ; healthy and growing wea- 
ther, and victory whenever we pray to them for it. Therefore we 
offer up our prayers to them, and make them sacrifices. I earnestly 
beg of you not to say another word to insult the profound veneration 
in which we hold these gods." 

As soon as Cortes heard these words, and perceived the great ex- 
citement under which they were pronounced, he said nothing in 
return, but merely remarked to the monarch with a cheerful smile, 
" It is time for us both to depart hence." To which Montezuma an- 
swered, that " he would not detain him any longer, but he himself 
was now obliged to stay some time to atone to his gods, by prayer 
and sacrifice, for having committed gratlatlacol, by allowing us to 
ascend the great temple, and thereby occasioning the affronts which 
we had offered them. " If that is the case," returned Cortes, " I beg 
your pardon, great monarch."* 

The Spaniards now descended from the temple, and on the follow- 
ing day Cortes ventured to request of the emperor permission to con- 
vert one of the halls in their residence into a chapel, that they might 
celebrate the services of their church there. The forgiving monarch 
not only granted the request, but sent some of his own artisans to aid 
them in the work. In making the necessary alterations, the Spaniards 
had sufficient curiosity to take away the plaster from a recently closed 
up door, to see what was beyond, and they had thus disclosed to them 
the place in which the emperor kept the treasures he had inherited 
from his father, a private hoard, the value of which made those who 
first looked on it u almost speechless with astonishment." "As at 
that time I was still a young man," says Diaz, " and had never be- 



* Bernal Diaz, chapter 92. 



PROJECT TO SEIZE MONTEZUMA. 97 

fore beheld such vast treasures, I concluded that the whole of the re- 
maining part of the world put together, could not produce such a vast 
collection of riches. However, all our officers and soldiers agreed to 
leave every thing untouched, and that the doorway should be walled 
up again as before, nor was Montezuma to be informed of our dis- 
covery." 

A week had passed since the Spaniards had entered the capital ; 
and though they had as yet no reason to complain of the manner in 
which they had been treated, they felt ill at ease. Their allies, the 
Tlascalans, were hourly suggesting the disadvantages of their situa- 
tion, and looking at every movement of the Mexicans with the sus- 
picion of enemies. The supply of food furnished for their tables was 
not so good as at first, and the least of a hundred circumstances might 
furnish a cause for their destruction. Besides, Cortes was not in the 
way to complete the conquest of the kingdom while he lay inactive 
as the guest of the king ; and the latter could not be expected to con- 
tinue friendly intercourse with him if he supposed that there was no 
intention on his part of departing. While the conquest was but just 
begun, the arrival of a successor from Spain, might rob him of the 
fruit of all his labour and sufferings, and another secure imperishable 
renown by marching past him on the road he himself had pointed out. 
This would also be one of the consequences of a retreat. Nor could 
he withdraw from the capital to Villa Rica, with any hope of safety, 
from the hands of what he had found to be a merciless and treacherous 
foe. View it as he might, his situation was full of danger, and prompt 
and successful action only could save him from ruin. But Cortes was 
never so much at home as when acting in the most fearful extremity. 
His active mind contrived a plan for his deliverance as bold as it was 
desperate. This was to get possession of the person of the emperor, 
and make the regard of his subjects for his safety, a guarantee for the 
security of the Spaniards against violence, while they used him as a 
tool for effecting the final success of their enterprise. Cortes imme- 
diately proposed the measure to his officers, of whom the most intel- 
ligent and resolute so warmly approved of it, that the timid were 
brought to give their consent, and it was resolved to carry it into exe- 
cution on the morrow. The intervening night was spent by the pious 
Father Olmedo in soliciting the favour of heaven for this great en- 
terprise. 

A pretext was readily found to justify the act. Cortes had received 
intelligence of a battle that had been fought between some of the 
soldiers of the garrison of Villa Rica, and an army of Mexicans 
under the governor of a province adjacent to the Spanish settlement, 
and although Cortes really cared little for this occurrence, it served 
I 13 



98 CONQUEST BY CORTES. 

an admirable purpose in the work he had resolved upon. He pro- 
ceeded in the morning with five of his officers, and the two inter- 
preters, Donna Marina and Aguilar, to the palace of the emperor, 
taking care to observe the forms they had hitherto used when de- 
sirous of an audience. Others of his soldiers were to come in small 
parties to the palace prepared for any emergency. Montezuma re- 
ceived them kindly, but when Cortes upbraided him with causing 
the attack that had been made upon the garrison at Vera Cruz, as 
well as with the attempt to destroy him and his army at Cholula, and 
informed him that he had now come to make him a prisoner, he gave 
free vent to his rage and astonishment. His rage was impotent 
against the stern resolution of the Spaniard, and as he turned from 
one to another of the pitiless faces of the warriors, whose fingers 
ever and anon clutched the hilts of their swords, he was seized with 
a fit of terror and trembling, and burst into tears. Without resist- 
ance, he caused himself to be borne in a litter to the residence of the 
Spaniards, publishing to his nobles and subjects that he went on a 
visit to Cortes, voluntarily, and desiring them to remain quiet. 

At the demand of Cortes, the governor who had made the attack 
on Villa Rica, was sent for with three of his principal officers, and 
they were tried for the offence and sentenced to death. When they 
found they were to die, they boldly laid the blame of the transaction 
upon Montezuma, whom Cortes therefore kept in irons while the 
execution was performed. By a master-stroke of policy the victims 
were burned alive, and the materials used for their funeral pile and 
used in excessive quantities, were arrows, javelins, and other weapons 
drawn by the emperor's permission from the arsenals of the city, 
where they had been stored to supply means of defence in times of 
civic tumult and insurrection. 

All this had taken place within ten days after the arrival of the 
Spaniards in the city, and for more than three months the emperor 
was kept a prisoner in the Spanish quarters. Here he was treated 
with the greatest show of respect, Cortes never allowing him to suf- 
fer the least indignity except from himself. Whenever he approached 
him he doffed his casque, and one of his soldiers who had treated 
him unkindly was only saved from death by the earnest entreaty of 
the captive sovereign himself. The kindly demeanour of Monte- 
zuma, his gentleness, and more than all, his excessive liberality, to all 
those about him, won the hearts of all the soldiers, and made him a 
general favourite. He made not the slightest attempt to regain his 
liberty, but aided Cortes in seizing, by strategy, the persons of the 
king of Tezcuco, and other princes of the realm, who had entered 
into i conspiracy to free their country and the emperor from the 




SUPREMACY OF SPAIN ACKNOWLEDGED. 99 

foreign yoke. Cortez punished their " rebellion," by confining them 
in irons. 

HE Spaniards did every thing in their power to 
render his confinement easy to himself, and 
were particularly careful that nothing of the 
ceremonies and etiquette formerly observed 
by his subjects towards him should be omitted. 
Outside of his own palace his will was abso- 
lute law. He was allowed to go into the tem- 
ple, escorted by a guard of Spaniards, and offi- 
ciate as of old at the shrine of his gods, his faith in whose divinity 
could not be shaken by all the logic of both the pious Christian 
fathers. He listened with deference, it is true, but the conferences 
on the subject always ended with his declaration that " the God of 
the Christians was good, but the gods of his own country were the true 
gods for him." The Spanish general had caused two vessels to be 
built of sufficient size to transport his whole army across the lake, 
and when these were finished, he delighted Montezuma and his suite 
by taking them on a pleasure excursion to the opposite shore of the 
lake, where the captive king was allowed to hunt in the royal park, 
as he had been wont to do in happier days. 

At one of their first interviews, Montezuma had offered to Cortes 
to acknowledge formally the supremacy of the Spanish emperor, and 
he was now called upon to make such an acknowledgment. He 
made no objections, but assembling all his nobles, he addressed them 
in a very affecting speech, desiring them to concur in the surrender 
of the empire to the Spaniards, who, he said, were the race which 
the great Quetezalcoatl had predicted would come from the rising 
sun to possess the land. " You have been faithful vassals of mine," 
said he, " during the many years that I have sat on the throne of my 
fathers. I now expect that you will show me this last act of obe- 
dience by acknowledging the great king beyond the waters to be 
your lord, also, and that you will pay him tribute in the same man- 
ner as you have hitherto done to me." His nobles were greatly as- 
stonished, as well as deeply moved at his address, and the tears 
which coursed down his cheeks during the interview forced their 
sympathy and obedience. The emperor and all his nobles then 
took the oath of allegiance to the Castilian throne, and, though " it was 
in the regular way of their own business," to quote an old chroni- 
cler, "there was not a Spaniard who could look on the spectacle 
with a dry eye."* 

* Prescott, vol. ii. p. 198 



100 CONQUEST BY CORTES. 

Montezuma accompanied the surrender of his kingdom with the 
gift of an immense treasure, comprising, besides the hoard which 
the Spaniards had discovered, a considerable amount collected from 
the tributaries of his empire. He desired it to be sent to Spain as 
tribute money to King Charles from his vassal Montezuma. The 
Spanish soldiers, however, regarded it as part of the fruits of their 
toils and clamoured for its division. Cortes yielded to their desire, 
and the treasure which amounted in value to about six millions three 
hundred thousand dollars, according to Prescott's calculation, was 
divided after his manner. The king's fifth part was first set aside ; 
a fifth of the remainder was assigned to Cortes ; after that the debts 
of the expedition were to be discharged, including the investments 
of Velasquez, and the expenses of the embassy to Spain, the losses 
of the expedition were then to be made good, and finally, certain 
individuals in the army, as the priests, officers, &c, were to receive 
larger allowances than the rest. By these drafts, each soldier's share 
was reduced to about fourteen hundred dollars. Many of the soldiers 
thought this amount so small, in comparison with their expectations, 
that they refused to accept it, and others speedily got to the end of 
their share by gaming with cards made out of the heads of drums. 
Nearly all, however, complained of injustice in the division, and it 
required all the ability of Cortes to prevent disastrous consequences. 

Cortes next demanded of Montezuma that a portion of the great 
temple of the gods should be given up to him to be converted into 
a temple for the worship of the true God. Montezuma gave his 
consent, for he could do no otherwise, and one of the sanctuaries on 
the top of the temple w T as purified, and an altar and a crucifix erected 
in it. The people scarcely needed the instigation of the priests to 
rouse them to desperation at this proceeding. To have their em- 
peror a prisoner, to give up their kingdom and their treasures, these 
were galling ; but to sit tamely under such an insult to their gods, 
was too much to ask of them. The priests, with haggard faces, ran 
through the streets covered with blood, denouncing wo to the people 
unless the sacrilegious strangers were expelled. Montezuma informed 
Cortes of this state of feeling, and warned him that he and his men 
would be made a sacrifice to the offended deities unless they left the 
country. Already the Spanish quarters were in a state of siege, when, 
in May, 1520, six months after his arrival in the capital, Cortes 
received tidings from the coast which gave him greater alarm than 
even the dangers which surrounded him. 

A second expedition had been fitted out by Velasquez, and in- 
trusted to the command of Don Pamfilo de Narvaez, who was to pro 
ceed immediately to Mexico, depose or decapitate Cortes, and seize 



DEFEAT OF NARVAEZ. 



101 




the country for the Spanish sovereign, in the name of the governor 
of Cuba. The fleet consisted of nineteen vessels, carrying upwards 
of a thousand foot soldiers, twenty cannons, eighty horsemen, a hun- 
dred and sixty musketeers and crossbowmen, besides a thousand 
Indian servants. This fleet anchored off the coast of Mexico, at San 
Juan de Ulloa, on the 23d of April, 1520. Here Narvaez received 
the astonishing information that Cortes was in possession of the 
Mexican capital, that the emperor was his prisoner, that he had re- 
ceived the surrender of the country and its treasure in the name of 
the Spanish sovereign, who was not so absolute in Europe as Cor- 
tes was in Mexico. Narvaez thereupon announced to the Indians 
his intention of setting Montezuma free, declaring that he was come 
to chastise Cortes who was a rebel against his sovereign. 

HE city of Villa Rica was 
first summoned to surren- 
der, but Gonsalvo de San- 
doval, the young officer 
who had been sent by Cor- 
tes to watch over that town 
and his interests after the 
death of Juan de Escalante, 
caused the messengers of 
Narvaez to be seized, strapped them to the backs of Indian porters, 
and sent them across the country to Cortes, in charge of a couple 
of soldiers who carried a letter informing the general of what had 
happened. Cortes, after thoroughly gaining these messengers over 
to his interests by kind words and presents, sent them back again 
to sow dissensions in the ranks of his rival. 

He also commenced a correspondence with Narvaez, which was 
continued without any definite result until within a day or two of the 
settlement of the difference by arms. For Cortes, knowing that on 
the decision and celerity of his actions depended his only hope of 
safety, left Pedro de Alvarado in command of a garrison of one hun- 
dred and forty men, in Mexico, and marched with the remainder, less 
than two hundred in number, to the Totonac country, where Sandoval 
joined him with the little garrison of Villa Rica, and thence to the 
quarters of Narvaez in Cempoalla. Here a battle was fought on the 
night of the twenty-sixth of May, 1520, between the heroic little band 
of the conqueror, and the numerous, well appointed, but half asleep 
army of Narvaez, who was very quickly defeated, being made pri- 
soner himself, with the loss of one eye. All his troops swore alle- 
giance to Cortes, but when daylight disclosed the numbers and 
ragged condition of their conquerors, they were nearly mad with 
i2 



3 02 



CONQUEST BY CORTES. 




The Defeat of Narvaez. 



shame and vexation. However, they were little disposed to hear 
the terrible war cry of Cortes ring again in their ears, in opposition 
to themselves, and he soon attached them to himself by his honeyed 
words, and by gifts so liberally bestowed that his old soldiers began 
to grow jealous. He had thus increased his own force sixfold ; he 
had thirteen hundred men under his command out of the city of 
Mexico, one hundred of whom were cavalry, and with such a force, 
what might he not achieve ? 

He was roused from his pleasant anticipations by intelligence from 
Alvarado that the Mexicans had risen en masse, and were besieging 
him and his followers with a prospect of success. This had been 
brought about by the imprudent policy of Alvarado, who had, under 
the influence of the fear of a revolt, or in a wanton spirit of cruelty, 
put to the sword five hundred of the elite of the city, as they were 
celebrating a festival within their great temple. The people had 
rushed immediately to arms, and were on the point of carrying the 
palace of the Spaniards by assault, when Montezuma's person was 
exposed to them, and they abstained from actual battle to besiege 
the fortress, hoping that famine would soon force a surrender. This 



BATTLE WITH THE AZTECS. 103 

was the state of things when Cortes arrived at the city, at the head 
of his new army, all of whom, says an old historian, had sworn to 
follow him with a readiness they would have been very far from 
evincing, had they known what they were to encounter. They 
reached the great lake on the 24th of June, and marched along the 
great causeway into the city, without opposition, but amid a silence 
that was ominous. They reached their stronghold, and the reunion 
was most joyful. But Cortes was mad with vexation when he learned 
the cause of the difficulty, and though he sharply rebuked Alvarado 
for his imprudence, he could effect nothing by punishing him, and he 
vented his ill humour on the unfortunate Montezuma. The faithful 
prince felt his unkindness to such a degree that he would hold no 
intercourse with him, yet he complied, as far as in his power, in try- 
ing to check the tumult, and procure provisions for the army. 

jHEIR efforts were unsuccessful. The day 
after the arrival of Cortes, a soldier 
whom he had despatched on an 
errand, returned to his quarters 
breathless, and covered with blood 
from wounds inflicted on him by the 
Mexicans, who, he said, were all in 
arms, with the drawbridges broken 
down, and every preparation made 
for an assault on the Spaniards in their stronghold. He himself had 
narrowly escaped being dragged away in a canoe for sacrifice. A 
struggle now commenced which lasted several days. The despera- 
tion with which the Aztecs fought convinced Cortes how much he 
had hitherto undervalued them, as they openly announced their opi- 
nion that they must fight on under defeat until the last Spaniard was 
slain, satisfied if with a thousand lives they paid for the death of but 
one of their detested enemies. Day after day the fighting was re- 
newed, the Spaniards being always victorious, but daily losing some 
of their number. Either they would sally out upon the multitude and 
cut them down in battle, or else drive them back when they advanced 
to storm and burn their works. The enemy poured along the streets 
like a flood, while every terrace in the vicinity was crowded with ex- 
pert archers and slingers, ready to shower arrows and stones upon 
any one of the garrison that left his defences for an instant. The 
soldiers of Narvaez were sadly disappointed in their reception in the 
city, and began to reproach Cortes with bringing them into destruc- 
tion, yet their murmurs were changed to shouts of admiration and 
love when they saw him spur his horse into the thickest of a crowd 
of Aztecs, to rescue a dying comrade from their hands. 




104 



CONQUEST BY CORTES. 




Cuitlahua. 



MONTEZUMA'S brother, Cuitlahua, 
had been arrested on suspicion of being 
concerned in the rebellion of Cacama. 
He was released by Cortes soon after 
his arrival in Mexico, in the hope that 
he could allay the present tumult, and 
bring the people to a more friendly state 
of feeling. But he had never forgiven 
the injuries he had received from the 
Spaniards, and he made use of his 
liberty to take the place of Montezuma 
during his captivity, and the well-di- 
rected movements of the besiegers were 
owing to his superior ability in organ- 
izing the forces. Foiled in this hope, 
Cortes now turned his thoughts to the 
emperor himself, and resolved to play 
off his authority against that of Cuitla- 
hua. He sent to request his interposition with his subjects in behalf 
of the garrison, but the emperor, whose feelings had been alienated 
by the treatment he had lately experienced from Cortes, and who felt 
bitterly the shame of his situation as the ally of his people's enemies, 
refused compliance. At the further solicitation of Olid and Father 
Olmedo, and the promise that, if a way were opened for them, the 
Spaniards would depart, he consented to expostulate with his sub- 
jects, more in the hope of sparing their lives than from regard to the 
Spaniards. 

Attired in his royal robes, and attended in state by several of the 
Aztec nobility, and the Spaniards, he ascended the central turret of 
the palace, and the tumult and strife hushed at his presence as if by 
magic. He felt his advantage, and addressed them in a calm voice, 
announcing himself as the friend of the Spaniards, who, he said, 
would leave the city if a way were opened for them. He therefore 
requested them to lay down their arms. A murmur of disgust ran 
through the multitude at this address ; and in the tumult of their 
passion they entirely forgot their accustomed feelings of respect and 
veneration ; bitter taunts were followed by a hostile demonstration on 
the part of a chief, and a cloud of stones and arrows descended upon 
the spot where he stood with his train. The Spaniards attempted to 
shield his person, but too late ; he was wounded by three of the mis- 
siles, and fell senseless to the ground. A revulsion of feeling on the 
part of the mass immediately ensued, and the great square before the 
palace was entirely deserted. 



DEATH OF MONTEZUMA. 



105 



Montezuma, carried below by his attendants, soon revived from 
the stunning effects of the blow, which had been inflicted on his head 
with a stone ; but the wretchedness of his condition now overcame 
him. " He had tasted," says Mr. Prescott, " the last bitterness of 
degradation. He had been reviled, rejected, by his people. The 
meanest of the rabble had raised their hands against him. He had 
nothing more to live for. It was in vain that Cortes and his officers 
endeavoured to soothe the anguish of his spirit, and fill him with 
better thoughts. He spoke not a word in answer. His wound, 
though dangerous, might still, with skilful treatment, not prove 
mortal. But Montezuma refused all the remedies prescribed for it. 
He "tore off the bandages as often as they were applied, maintaining 
all the while the most determined silence. He sat with eyes dejected, 
brooding over his fallen fortunes, over the image of ancient majesty 
and present humiliation. He had survived his honour. But a spark 
of his ancient spirit seemed to kindle in his bosom, as it was clear 
that he did not mean to survive his disgrace."* He expired on the 
30th of June, 1520, in the arms of some of his own faithful nobles. 
" Cortes, his officers, and all of us," says Bernal Diaz, " shed tears 
for this unfortunate monarch ; indeed many of our men who had been 
in constant attendance upon him, mourned for him as if they had lost 
a parent. Even Father Olmedo himself, who never for a moment 
left his side, and who, notwithstanding all 
his efforts, had not been able to convert him 
to Christianity, could not refrain from shed- 
ding tears. And no one will feel surprised 
at this who knew what a very kind-hearted 
| person Montezuma was. Mexico never had 
a better monarch."! 

Finding that they suffered severely from 
the missiles thrown into their fortress from 
the great teocalli opposite, the Spaniards en- 
deavoured to carry it by storm ; but their 
first efforts, made under the valiant chamber- 
lain of Cortes, Escobar, were unsuccessful. 
The general himself then fastened a buckler 
to his disabled left arm, and led on his troops 
to the attack in person. Terrace after ter- 
race was carried, until finally the opponents 
met in a hand to hand conflict on the broad level at the top. The 
natives were doubly numerous, but the victory was on the side of the 




Escobar. 



Conquest of Mexico, vol. ii. p. 320. 

14 



t Chapter 126, 



106 CONQUEST BY CORTES. 




Cortes. 

Spaniards. The people ceased fighting to gaze upon the issue above, 
and the tumbling of the struggling warriors down the sides of the 
precipice, raised alternate emotions of sorrow or triumph in the spec- 
tators. Cortes himself narrowly escaped death in this manner, at the 
hands of two of the most athletic of the Aztecs, who were dragging 
him to the edge, joyful in death to rid their beloved land of so ter- 
rible a foe. At length, however, the last warrior was overpowered, 
and the victors rushed into the sanctuaries. They found the statue 
of the Virgin and the cross removed from their temple ; but the grim 
figure of Huitzilopotchli was still in the other, with the hearts and 
gore of their own countrymen lying before him. With feelings of joy 
and triumph, which such devoted missionaries only could experience, 
they dragged him from his niche and tumbled him headlong down 
the steps of the teocalli. They then set fire to the sanctuary, de- 
scended to the court yard, and marched to their own quarters, unmo- 
lested by the terrified natives. In the night they sallied forth and 
burned three hundred houses. The siege, however, continued, and 
the enemy continually taunted the Spaniards with the fact that all 
their losses did not lessen their numbers nor resources, while the 
Spaniards were becoming continually weaker, and could not escape, 
because the bridges were broken down. 

After the death of Montezuma, Cortes determined to leave the 
city, and night was chosen for the attempt, in the hope that the 
enemy would then be less alert. The night selected was that of the 
1st of July, 1520, still celebrated by the Spaniards as the JYoche 
Triste, (sorrowful night.) They began to move, towards midnight, in 



DEFEAT OF THE SPANIARDS. 



107 




Christoval de Olid. 



three divisions, Sandoval leading the van, Alvarado and de Leon the 
rear, and Cortes himself in the centre, where he placed the prisoners, 
among whom were a son and two daughters of Montezuma, and other 
Mexicans of distinction, the artillery, the baggage, and a portable 
bridge, made for the purpose of enabling them to pass the breaches 
in the causeway. They marched in silence along the causeway 
which led to Tacuba, because it was most remote from Tlascala, and 
had been less damaged by the enemy. The first breach in it was 
reached without molestation, and they were fixing their portable 
bridge to cross it, congratulating themselves on their success, when 
the signal was given for the most disastrous battle of the conquest. 
Instantaneously the lake was covered by canoes, from which the 
natives poured arrows and stones in upon them from every quarter, 
rushing forward to do battle on the causeway with a daring in which 
all thoughts were lost, save those of patriotism and revenge. The 
wooden bridge unfortunately became so wedged into the mud by the 
passage of the army over it, that it was impossible to move it, and 
the army pressed onward to the second breach in dismay. The 
Mexicans hemmed them in on every side, while their discipline and 
superior weapons could avail them little on such a narrow field, and 
amid the darkness of a rainy night. Fresh warriors instantly filled 
the place of the Mexicans who fell, driven on by those in the rear, 
until the Spaniards were compelled to give way. The confusion 
soon became universal, and each one sought only to save himself. 
Cortes, with a hundred foot soldiers and a few horse, succeeded in 
forcing his way over the two remaining breaches to the main land, 



108 



CONQUEST BY CORTES. 



the bodies of the dead serving to fill up the chasms. He formed 
them on the shore, and returned with Sandoval and a few of the 
horse, to the place on the causeway, between the second and third 
breaches, where Alvarado and the rear guard were fighting despe- 
rately against the overwhelming numbers of the foe. With his 
terrible battle cry he reassured the despairing infantry, and led the 
cavalry to the charge with such furious valour, that the infantry were 
enabled to reach the other side of the trench. At length all had 
crossed except Cortes, Sandoval, Alvarado, and a few others. They 
all made their way over except Alvarado, who had lost his horse, and 
was bleeding from several wounds. The trench was filled with the 
enemy, looking at him with fiendish expectation of the moment when 
he should leap into the ditch and be borne away a sacrifice to the 
gods, whose servants he had shortly before so ruthlessly destroyed. 
Five or six were advancing along the causeway to seize him, when 
he glanced to the other side of the chasm, planted his long lance 
amid the rubbish in the centre, and clearing it at a bound, placed 
himself in safety amid his friends. The spot where this tremendous 
feat was executed, still bears the name of Alvarado's leap. 

THE Mexicans now retired from the fight, 
and the Spaniards marched along the cause- 
way to Tlacopan. Here, in the daylight, 
Cortes was enabled to compute the losses of 
the night. Four hundred and fifty Spaniards 
and four thousand of the brave Tlascalans 
had been slain, drowned, or made prisoners, 
and this number, with those who had fallen 
in the terrible conflicts within the city, re- 
duced his army to a little more than one- 
fourth what it had been. The cannon, fire- 
arms, and ammunition were all lost, not a 
musket remaining among the five hundred 
survivors. The number of the cavalry was 
reduced to twenty-three, and they were in 
a most miserable condition. But the loss 
most severely felt by Cortes was that of his 
friend, Velasquez de Leon, who, with Alva- 
rado, had held the post of danger, and lost 
his life defending it. The sight of the 
wounds of the survivors, the thought of their 
sufferings, grief at the loss of so many gallant followers and faithful 
friends, pierced his soul with anguish, and the tears stealing down 
his cheeks, as he attempted to issue necessary orders, were remarked 




Velasquez de Leon. 



RETREAT TO TLASCALA. 109 

by his soldiers with affection, as evidence of the goodness of his 
heart. He wasted no time, however, in vain regrets, but exerted 
himself to prepare for a future which seemed and proved to be full 
of danger. The greater part of the treasure was lost. The general 
had suffered the men to take as much of the gold in the treasury as 
they wished before setting out, telling them at the same time, how- 
ever, that those travelled safest who travelled lightest. Very many, 
however, disdained to follow his advice, and their inconsiderate 
avarice greatly added to the number of the victims of the night. 

At this very moment, however, the spirit of the unconquerable 
leader was filled with plans for the future, in which no thought save 
of ultimate success, was allowed to enter. The safety of Donna 
Marina and Aguilar was a source of great satisfaction to him, but he 
rejoiced in his heart to find that his skilful shipwright, Martin Lopez, 
had escaped uninjured. Anticipations of the distant future, however, 
gave place to the care against immediate danger. The army was on 
the west side of the lake, and a march was to be made around the 
north end of it before they could go towards Tlascala, which lay sixty- 
four miles east of it. They marched for six days through a barren 
country incessantly annoyed by the enemy, whose attacks required 
the constant exercise of courage and activity, while want of food was 
fast reducing their strength. One source of consolation, however, 
remained to the suffering army ; the presence of their leader, fore- 
most in every danger, and sharing with cheerfulness every hardship. 
He shared with them in a feast off the dead body of a horse, whose 
decease furnished them with a substitute for the berries and roots on 
which they had been subsisting. 

As they marched along, the enemy, who harassed them repeatedly, 
uttered the same cry which attracted the attention of the Spaniards. 
Donna Marina translated it for them, but could not tell its meaning. 
" Hasten on ! you will soon find yourselves where you cannot escape !" 
Time furnished an explanation. As the army came to the summit 
of an eminence, they saw in the spacious valley before them, the plain 
of Otumba, an immense army, extending as far as the eye could reach, 
and directly in the road they had to follow. This was the main army 
of the Mexicans, of which the body which had accompanied their re- 
treat, and was now in their rear, was but a small detachment. The 
boldest of the Spaniards despaired at the prospect of death in the at- 
tempt to force a passage at such odds ; but Cortes giving them no 
time for reflection, led on the charge. Every where he made head 
against them ; but all his efforts were unavailing, so far as the end in 
view was concerned, for one battalion was no sooner dispersed than 
new ones occupied its place ; and as the day wore on, the Spaniards 
K 



110 



CONQUEST BY CORTES. 




Sandoval. 



felt their strength failing without seeing any end to their toil, or any hope 
of victory. The most daring feats of arms had been achieved by the 

young captain, Sandoval, on whom the 
admiration of the army was fixed, when 
the quick eye and daring hand of Cortes 
himself effected their deliverance. He 
had noticed at a distance, in the throng, a 
chieftain whom he judged to be the com- 
mander of the enemy from the splendour 
of his dress, and the standard of the Az- 
tecs, which was a golden net at the end 
of a short staff, attached to his back be- 
tween the shoulders. Summoning San- 
doval, Olid, Alvarado, and others to his 
aid, he rushed headlong into the thickest 
of the enemy, beating them to the earth 
by the very impetuosity of his attack, and 
clearing every obstacle in the way to the 
chief, before the especial object of this onslaught could be discovered. 
The nobles around the cacique made a gallant resistance ; but the 
fate, of this day, and the lives of his whole army, depended now upon 
his efforts alone, and he overturned them as men of atoms, until he 
was in the presence of the cacique himself, whom he hurled to the 
ground with his lance. 

Juan de Salamanca, a brave young cavalier had kept close beside 
his leader in the charge : he now dismounted and despatched the fallen 
chief, tearing away his banner, and presenting it to Cortes as the vic- 
tor. The whole was the work of a moment : the nobles of the guard 
fled, panic-stricken ; every standard among the Aztecs was lowered ; 
weapons were cast aside, and a flight to the mountains commenced. 
Wounds, hunger, fatigue, every thing was forgotten by the Spaniards 
and Tlascalans in the eagerness of revenge. The work of slaughter 
continued until no more victims could be reached, when the con- 
querors returned to indemnify themselves for the treasures they had 
lost, in taking the spoils of their enemies. These were exceedingly 
valuable, as the Mexican army numbered among its slain, many of the 
principal warriors, who had marched into the battle-field in their 
richest ornaments, assured of victory. Next day the Spaniards en- 
tered the territories of the Tlascalans, whose chiefs soon put to flight 
their misgivings as to the reception they would meet. " We have 
made common cause together,"* said Maxixca, " and we have com- 



Prescott, vol. ii. p. 407. 




INDISPOSITION OF CORTES. Ill 

mon injuries to avenge ; and come weal or come wo, be assured we 
will prove true and loyal friends, and stand by you to the death." 

THE Totonacs and the Cempoal- 
lans remained firm in their attach- 
ment to his interests, and thereby se- 
cured to him the town of Villa Rica. 
Their friends at Tlascala were assidu- 
ous in their care of the sick and 
wounded, of whom Cortes himself was 
one of the greatest sufferers. He lost 
the use of two fingers of his left hand, 
and had received two wounds on the 
head, one of which, exasperated by fa- 
tigue and excitement, now threatened 
his life. A fever ensued, which reduced him to the verge of the grave. 
His constitution, however, triumphed over the disease, and the quiet 
inactivity of convalescence enabled him to ponder carefully his plan 
for continuing to prosecute the conquest. 

The tidings which reached him were not of a gratifying character. 
When he came from Mexico to overthrow Narvaez, he had brought 
with him a quantity of gold, which had been deposited at Tlascala, 
on his return to Mexico. Velasquez de Leon had added to this 
a considerable sum : the whole was under the guardianship of a num- 
ber of invalid soldiers. A party of five horsemen and forty foot, 
coming from Vera Cruz, offered to escort the invalids and treasure to 
the capital, and set out on the road thither. The whole party was 
cut off, and the treasure lost. Twelve other soldiers marching in the 
same direction, had been massacred in the province of Tepeaca, and 
accounts were from time to time received of the murder of solitary 
travellers, who, ignorant of the altered state of affairs at the capital, 
had ventured to travel thitherward alone. 

As soon as he was able to leave his bed, he drew a supply of am- 
munition and two or three field-pieces from his stores at Vera Cruz, 
and prepared to take the field for the purpose of punishing some of 
the neighbouring tribes, who had taken advantage of his clouded 
fortunes to revolt from his government. Many of the soldiers refused 
to participate in any further hostilities, demanding to be led back to 
Vera Cruz ; but he made one of his soul-stirring speeches to them, 
which roused all the enthusiasm of his own first followers, and 
shamed into silence the discontented soldiers from the army of Nai • 
vaez. The Tlascalans gave him a ready support ; his former able 
enemy, the younger Xicotencatl, laying aside the animosity he had 
heretofore shown towards the Spaniards, and taking the field in per- 



112 CONQUEST BY CORTES. 

son at the head of his countrymen. He could have found no better 
teacher in the art of war. The Tepeacans, a powerful tribe of the 
same stock as the Aztecs, had yielded to Cortes when the Tlascalans 
were subdued, and afterwards resumed their allegiance to the Mexi- 
cans. They were defeated in two bloody battles, in which the 
conquerors gained great booty. For the massacre of the twelve 
Spaniards they were dreadfully punished. The people of the places 
implicated in the massacre, were branded with hot iron as slaves, 
and four-fifths of them distributed among the soldiers and the allies. 
Cortes now made Tepeaca his head-quarters, and a short but brilliant 
campaign followed, in which he extended his authority over all the 
neighbouring provinces, accustomed his men to victory, reasserted 
the Spanish superiority, taught his Indian allies to act in concert 
with his own troops, and steadily weakened the Mexican power. Suc- 
cess in battle was followed up by pursuit, and the capture of the 
enemy's camp, which was given up to plunder ; a judicious course 
which brought about him in immense numbers the brave natives, 
who fought gladly under a chief always leading them to certain vic- 
tory and plunder. The character Cortes had acquired for disinte- 
restedness and equity, attached them to his person more and more 
strongly, as the wisdom of his judgments, when disputed rights and 
succession to power were referred to his arbitration, led them to yield 
him an ascendency over their councils greater than had ever before 
been exercised. Sandoval, at the head of a separate command, 
destroyed a great force of the enemy, in two battles, fought in the 
country between Vera Cruz and the camp, and restored the commu- 
nication with that place, and Cortes soon found himself the head of 
an empire raised by himself in the heart of the land, rivalling in 
strength that of the Mexicans themselves. 

The captain-general now sent his shipwright, Martin Lopez, to 
Tlascala to commence the building of thirteen brigantines, which 
might be taken to pieces and carried on the shoulders of the Indians, 
to be reconstructed and launched on Lake Tezcuco. The sails, rig- 
ging, and other furniture were to be brought from Vera Cruz, from 
the stored up remains of the dismantled ships. At this juncture, 
Duero, the secretary, who had hitherto been his fast friend, with 
some others, left his standard, and sailed away from Vera Cruz by 
his permission, some of them to meet him again as enemies at the 
court of Madrid. Their place was supplied by reinforcements which 
he little anticipated. Velasquez having heard nothing from his ex- 
pedition under Narvaez, and supposing Cortes, to be by this time, a 
prisoner in his hands, had despatched a ship with stores, arms, and 
ammunition to the colony of Villa Rica. The alcalde of Vera Cruz 



CORTES FOUNDS A NEW COLONY. 



113 



permitted the crew to land, then seized them, secured their vessel, 
informed them of their error, and induced them to enlist under 
Cortes. A second vessel sent by Velasquez soon afterwards shared 
the same fate ; three vessels sent by the governor of Jamaica to 
prosecute discoveries and plant colonies in Central America, met 
with disasters, and came to Vera Cruz to restore the men, weakened 
by wounds and sickness, where the crews were easily induced by the 
magic power of Cortes's name, to abandon their present disastrous 
service and join his army ; and finally, a merchant vessel, sent out 
from the Canaries to sell arms and military stores to adventurers 
in the New World, came direct to Vera Cruz, and was purchased by 
Cortes, crew, vessel, and cargo. 

^~NORTES now founded a second Spanish 
colony in the interior of the country at 
Tepeaca, which he called Segura de la 
Frontera. This place became of some 
importance in the age of the conquest, 
but has since steadily declined. With 
joy at these great accessions to their 
power, was mingled deep regret on the 
part of the Spaniards at the loss of their 
kind friend, the Tlascalan cacique, Max- 
ixca, who fell a victim to the small pox, 
which had been introduced into the 
country by a negro in Narvaez's service, 
and was now sweeping over the whole 
country, strewing its path with thousands 
of victims. The emperor, Cuitlahua, the 
successor of Montezuma, fell beneath it. 
The good Father Olmedo came to Maxixca on his death bed, and 
found a crucifix before his couch as the object of his adoration. He 
was baptized immediately, and the Christians had the satisfaction of 
believing him at least to be exempted from eternal perdition. 

In the middle of December, having fixed a garrison of sixty in- 
valid soldiers at Tepeaca, and made all his arrangements for the 
march to Mexico, Cortes returned to Tlascala. His advance was a 
perfect triumph. The trophies and the spoils of his victories were 
conspicuously displayed, and the natives poured out in masses to hail 
their return with songs, dancing, and music. Triumphal arches 
were every where erected along the route, the path was strewn with 
flowers, and the victorious general was further glorified in a recep- 
tion speech by a Tlascalan orator, who styled him " The Avenger of 
the Nation." But what won the hearts of the natives even more than 
k2 15 




114 



CONQUEST BY CORTES. 



these successes, was the sight of Cortes and his officers all clad in deep 
mourning for the loss of their friend, Maxixca. The first act of the 
general was to settle the succession on the son of that cacique, whose 
right to the throne was disputed by an illegitimate brother. The 
young ruler was persuaded to be baptized, and Cortes afterwards 
knighted him. 

ABOUT the same time the Mexi- 
cans, with one voice, called to the 
throne the prince Quauhtemotzin, ren- 
dered by the Spaniards Guatemozin, 
the son-in-law and nephew of Mon- 
tezuma. He was but twenty-five years 
old, yet there was no more valiant 
man in Mexico, and none had so dis- 
tinguished himself in the bloody con- 
flicts of the capital. He knew b 
means of his spies the preparations 
and designs of Cortes against the 
capital, and he prepared to meet him 
in an effectual manner. All useless 
persons were sent away ; the power- 
ful vassals of the neighbourhood were 
called to the city in great numbers ; 
the defences were strengthened ; the 
troops were exercised daily in arms, 
and every incentive was resorted to which could inspire the masses 
with the same hatred of the invaders which filled the breast of the 
emperor. 

Cortes left Tlascala on his final march for Mexico, on the 28th of 
December, 1520. His force consisted of about six hundred Spaniards-, 
with forty horses, nine cannons, and an indifferent supply of ammunition. 
A large body of the natives, Tlascalans, Tepeacans, and Cholulans 
followed him, and another army of these natives marched to the capi- 
tal soon afterwards, guarding and assisting in the transportation of 
the brigantines. The general found many preparations made along 
the road for his reception ; but he reached the city of Tezcuco with- 
out difficulty. To his surprise, the cacique of the city attempted ne- 
gotiation for a few hours, while the population of the city, and he 
himself, abandoned it and fled to Mexico. On entering the city 
Cortes discovered their flight, and immediately took advantage of it 
to proclaim the cacique dethroned. Some of the Tezcucan nobles 
pointed out a person who favoured the Spaniards as the rightful heir 
1o the throne, and Cortes elevated him to it. His people were by 




Guatimozin. 



CORTES WOUNDED. 



115 




Ixtlilxochitl. 



this means made allies of the army, and rendered good service where 
they could be trusted, under their general Ixtlilxochitl, the brother 
of the new king, and the man whom Montezuma had imbittered by 
his decision, when the disputed succession to the throne of Nezahualpilli 
was submitted to his arbitration. 

THE new cacique of Tezcuco did not long 
survive his exaltation, and Ixtlilxochitl suc- 
ceeded him. He was always afterwards the 
fast friend of the Spaniards, and contributed 
no little to their success. Making Tezcuco 
his head-quarters, Cortes employed himself 
for four months, while the preparations for 
launching the fleet were being made, with 
excursions into all the country around the 
lakes, sometimes acting in concert with his 
lieutenants, Sandoval and Alvarado, and some- 
times in separate, independent expeditions. 
^\ Every where the powerful genius of Guate- 
mozin showed itself in opposition to him, and 
several of the most glorious battles of the 
conquest were fought in this preparatory campaign. The emperor 
displayed a devotion and patriotism that would have rendered his 
name immortal in other circumstances. On one occasion he opened 
the dikes and flooded the city of Iztapalapan when the Spaniards had 
stormed it, causing them to be nearly drowned in their retreat, spoiling 
their powder, and preventing them from carrying off any of the spoils. 
At Xochimilco, " the field of flowers," one of the most wealthy 
and beautiful cities on the lake, Cortes had the most narrow escape 
from death that befell him during the war. He had gained a victory, 
and taken the city, and the troops were hotly pursuing the fugitives 
through the streets. The general himself, with a few followers, re- 
mained near the entrance to the city. A fresh body of Indians sud- 
denly poured into the place from a neighbouring dike. Cortes, 
knowing no fear, threw himself into the midst of the enemy, hoping 
to stop their advance. But he and his little party were quickly 
overwhelmed in the mass of the enemy, his horse fell, he received 
a very severe blow on the head, and his enemies seized him, and 
with shouts of triumph were bearing him off. A Tlascalan saw his 
danger. With the fury of a tiger he sprang to the rescue, and his 
superhuman efforts stopped their progress until two of the general's 
servants came to the rescue, and enabled him to regain his feet. He 
was soon in the saddle again, and the victorious pursuers, hearing 
ilie tumult in their rear, came back and ended the conflict. Corte 



116 CONQUEST BY CORTES. 

would have lost his life but for the eagerness of the enemy to take 
him prisoner. Many of the Spaniards saved their lives in conse- 
quence of this passion for living victims. Cortes sought in vain next 
day for his gallant Tlascalan preserver, and supposing him dead, at- 
tributed his salvation to his good patron, Saint Peter. 

A conspiracy among his men, chiefly confined to the old troops of 
Narvaez, was happily discovered, and the leader promptly hanged 
from the windows of his own quarters. The Tlascalan chief, Xico- 
tencatl, deserted the Spaniards in such a manner as to occasion great 
fears from the effects of his well-known animosity to them, and Cor- 
tes sent to the Tlascalan senate to demand his arrest, stating that the 
Spanish law punished desertion with death. They replied that 
their law was the same, and the royal captive was delivered to the 
Spaniards to be executed in the presence of, and as a warning to, 
his more faithful countrymen. During these operations, two hundred 
men, eighty horses, and a supply of ammunition, arrived in three ships 
at Vera Cruz, probably the ones sent to Jamaica by Cortes for re- 
inforcements while he was at Tlascala. 

HIS welcome addition to his means of 
offence soon reached his camp. The 
brigantines were launched, twelve of 
the thirteen proving fit for service, and, 
though necessarily rude and imperfect, 
they gained at the outset a decisive vic- 
tory over the canoes of the natives, and 
secured to the Spaniards the command 
of the lake. The operations in the 
neighbouring states, while they secured 
to Cortes the ability to turn his whole 
attention to the reduction of the city without fear of annoyance from 
without, greatly increased the number of the defenders of the capital, 
as each successive hostile army when defeated, marched thither for 
refuge, and to partake in the final struggle for its defence. Their 
very numbers, however, proved a disadvantage from the impossibility 
of sustaining them for any length of time, and contributed materially 
to hasten the fall of the city. Provisions were carried into the city, 
for a time, however, in great quantities, and even when the brigan- 
tines caused the open transportation by canoes to cease, the natives 
still contrived to administer to the necessities of the garrison by night. 
But this state of things changed when the great vassals in the vicinity 
found that Guatemozin was becoming more and more straightened in 
the capital, and of course less able to support and protect them. 
They revolted one by one, espoused the cause of Cortes, and sent 





SIEGE OF THE CAPITAL. 117 

their warriors in such numbers to aid him in the siege, that he be- 
came in turn seriously distressed for the means of feeding all his 
host. 

The siege was regularly commenced on the 10th of May, 1521. 
The army was divided into three bodies, nearly equal in numbers. 
One, under Alvarado, was posted at Tlacopan, to operate on the 
western causeway ; another, under Christoval de Olid, commanded 
one of the branches of the southern causeway at Cojohuacan, and the 
third, under the intrepid Sandoval, pushed on the attack from the 
other branch of the same causeway at Iztapalapan. 

HE flotilla was under the command of 
Cortes himself, who assisted the opera- 
tions of his lieutenants whenever his 
presence was necessary. Alvarado oc- 
casioned great distress in the capital 
by a successful attempt, made as soon 
as his post was assigned him, to cut off 
the aqueducts which supplied the city 
with water. During the rest of the 
siege the Mexicans were forced to drink 
the salt water of the lake, or depend 
upon the precarious supply introduced from without in canoes. For 
a month after the siege had been commenced, Cortes adhered to a 
plan by which he hoped to effect its reduction without destroying 
the city, which he destined to become his capital, and a monument 
of his glory. He pushed on the attack from all the three stations 
with vigour, but the Aztecs met him with valour only inferior to that 
of the Spaniards. When his troops had spent the day carrying bar- 
ricades, filling up trenches and canals, and advancing their purpose, 
and had retired to their quarters for the night, the indefatigable foe 
sallied forth and repaired their works anew for the conflict on the 
morrow. Thus the toil and danger of the Spaniards were continually 
renewed, yet they struggled on in the hope of gaining some decisive 
advantage, which might force the enemy to surrender, and terminate 
the war. But they found that they greatly underrated the heroism 
of their foes. 

On land and on water, by night and by day, one furious conflict 
succeeded another, and though the Spaniards had completed the oc- 
cupation of the causeways, and the city was in a state of blockade, 
they seemed but little nearer their object than at first. Under this 
state of things, Cortes yielded to the solicitations of his officers to 
hazard an assault upon the city in the hope of getting possession of 
the great market of Tlatelolco, whose spacious porticoes would fur- 



118 



CONQUEST BY CORTES. 




nish accommodations for a numerous host, and by which an easy 
communication would be opened between the camps of Alvarado and 
Sandoval. The royal treasurer, Alderete, advocated this measure, 
and Cortes gave him the command of one body of his own division. 

Andres de Tapia and Jorge de Alva- 
rado, a younger brother of Pedro, led 
the second body, and the third was 
under the direction of Cortes himself. 
These three bodies were to advance 
along the three parallel streets which led 
from the suburbs into the square of Tla- 
telolco. Cortes gave very strict orders 
not to advance without filling up all the 
ditches and openings in the causeway, in 
order to secure a retreat. In the ardour 
of battle this was neglected by Alderete, 
whose accounts of the success he met 
w r ith filled the mind of Cortes with mis- 
givings. He quitted his own body and 
followed in the track of the rash leader. 
Soon he came to a breach in the cause- 
way, the sides of which gave evidence of 
their having very recently been trimmed 
off. It was twelve paces wide, and filled with water two fathoms 
deep. Scarcely any attempt had been made to fill it up, and Cortes 
saw that his rash officer had rushed into the snare laid for him. He 
set about filling up the chasm, when the great gong of Guatemozin 
was sounded, and in a moment the flying Aztecs turned on their 
pursuers with a fury that threw them into a panic. From every lane 
thousands of warriors poured upon their flanks, seizing the fugitives, 
and bearing them away alive to grace the altars of their gods. Mis- 
siles were poured upon their heads from the housetops, and they 
were unable, in the confusion, to distinguish their Indian allies from 
their foes. Cortes stood in the water at the breach, labouring with 
the most praiseworthy devotion to assist the poor fugitives to reach 
the further side of the breach, his well-known person, and his posi- 
tion, causing the darts, stones, and arrows from thousands of ene- 
mies, to be poured upon him. At length, with a cry of Malinche, 
six able-bodied warriors seized him suddenly, and attempted to drag 
him into their canoe. In the fight he was severely wounded in the 
leg, and his escape seemed hopeless, when a gallant warrior, Cristo- 
val de Olea, came to his aid, cut off at a blow the arm of one savage, 
and ran another through the body with his sword. His own life was 



Jorge de Alvarado. 



SIEGE OF THE CAPITAL. 



J 19 




forfeited for his general ; but a Tlascalan and another Spaniard were 
enabled by this time to come up, and they despatched three others 
of the general's captors. His horse was now brought to him, and he 
was assisted to mount him, but his chamberlain, Guzman, was 
snatched away by the enemy as he held the bridle, and carried off 
a captive. 

|HE general at length collected the 
remnant of the division at an open- 
ing where he had stationed a re- 
serve with two guns, and the fire 
of the artillery served to check the 
advance of the enemy, while an 
orderly retreat was effected. Mean- 
while the forces of Pedro de Alva- 
rado and Sandoval had entered 
the city from the other causeway, 
and gained many advantages, but 
the gong which sounded for the 
assault on the troops of Alderete, 
produced an increase in the fury of 
their opponents, while the heads of their countrymen, which the 
enemy exhibited to them with cries, implying that Cortes was slain, 
satisfied them that the day had been lost by the other division, and 
they retreated. Cortes was also presented with the heads of his 
fallen warriors during the battle, and the enemy impressed him with 
the belief that both Alvarado and Sandoval were slain. The reunion 
between them was on this account extremely joyful, although their 
hearts were greatly cast down by the events of the day. Besides 
those who had fallen in fighting and the wounded, they had lost in 
prisoners sixty-two Spaniards and a multitude of allies, all of whom 
would certainly be sacrificed. In the evening, as the declining sun 
lit up the top of the teocalli, they saw several of their countrymen, 
whose white skins identified them as they were driven up the wind- 
ing ascent of the temple, sacrificed in the usual mode. After their 
hearts were torn out, their bodies were tumbled off the top to make 
a feast for the cannibals below. This sight made the Spaniards sick 
at heart, while it inspired their enemies with resolution sufficient to 
make them vow that all their enemies should share the same fate, 
and attempted to fulfil it by a fearful assault upon the intrenchments. 
They paid dearly, however, for their temerity. 

They were nevertheless so elated by their great victory, that the 
priests ventured to predict that in eight days all the Spaniards should 
be slain, for so their gods had decreed. The allies of the Spaniards 



120 



CONQUEST BY CORTES. 




Pedro de Alvarado. 



became terrified at this prediction, and nearly all withdrew to a dis- 
tance to await in fear the event. Many of the caciques, however, 
remained in the camp, and Cortes kept his men quiet in their in- 
trenchments until after the eight days had expired. Then the allies 
came back joyfully, in greater numbers than before. But these eight 
days had greatly weakened the starving defenders of the city, who 
were now rapidly circumscribed in their limits. 

The Spaniards advanced gradually, but steadily, the allies filled 
up the ditches behind them and levelled with the ground every con- 
quered edifice, and though the indomitable Guatemozin disputed 
every inch of ground, his resistance became daily weaker. Pesti- 
lence, the natural result of famine^ and the number of unburied 
bodies which were lying in the streets filled up the measure of their 
woes. 

Still did the dauntless Guatemozin refuse to capitulate. The 
daring Alvarado carried by assault the great teocalli, in the northern 
part of the city, on which they had seen so many of their country- 
men sacrificed. He devoted the warriors and priests who defended 
it to the manes of his murdered countrymen, and announced his suc- 
cess to the other divisions of the army by burning the war-god and 
his sanctuary, and planting in triumph on the ruins the standard of 
Castile. The divisions of the beseigers now united in the city, 
seven-eighths of which was in ruins. Two murderous assaults were 
made on the 12th and 13th of August. On the 12th, by the aid of 
the allies, who totally disregarded the orders of Cortes to spare, the 
unresisting forty thousand of the Mexicans were slaughtered, and on 



MEETING OF CORTES AND G U ATE M Z IN. 121 

the succeeding day the work of destruction was proceeding at a fear- 
fully rapid rate, when Guatemozin was captured by one of the ves- 
sels in an attempt to escape to the main land. The glory of his 
arrest belongs to Captain Garci Holguin, who acted under the orders 
of the vigilant Sandoval. The news of the prince's capture spread 
through the fleet of canoes and the army on shore, and all resistance 
ended. 

Guatemozin was conducted to Cortes, who treated him with re- 
spect and consideration. Donna Marina acted as his interpreter, a 
proud moment for her who had shared in the devotion of love the 
many vicissitudes through which the conqueror had passed. When 
the emperor and the conqueror met, Guatemozin first broke silence by 
saying, " I have done all that I could to defend myself and my people. 
I am now reduced to this state. You will deal with me, Malinche, 
as you list. Better despatch me with this," laying his hand on the 
hilt of a poniard in the general's belt, " and rid me of life at once." 
Filled with admiration, Cortes replied. " Fear not, you shall be 
treated with all honour. You have defended your capital like a 
brave warrior. A Spaniard knows how to respect valour even in an 
enemy."* He then caused the emperor's wife to be brought from 
the brigantine into his presence, and the royal captives and their at- 
tendant nobles were supplied with the food they so much needed. On 
the next day Cortes gave orders for the unmolested evacuation of the 
city by the Mexicans, according to Guatemozin's request, and the puri- 
fication was commenced. Treasure was not to be found. The whole 
booty in the precious metals did not amount to as much as the Spa- 
niards had left behind them, when they quitted the city on the Noche 
Triste, and though Cortes afterwards went so far as to put both the 
emperor and his treasurer to the torture, he did not succeed in dis- 
covering any hidden depositories of wealth. 

"It was the hour of vespers," says Mr. Prescott,* "when Guate- 
mozin surrendered, and the siege might be considered as then con- 
cluded, (August 3, 1521.) The evening set in dark, and the rain 
began to fall before the several parties of Spaniards had evacuated 
the city. During the night a tremendous tempest, such as the Spaniards 
had rarely witnessed, and such as is known only within the tropics, 
burst over the Mexican valley. The thunder reverberating from the 
rocky amphitheatre of hills, bellowed over the waste of waters, and 
shook the teocallis and crazy tenements of Tenochtitlan — the few that 
yet survived — to their foundations. The lightning seemed to cleave 
asunder the vault of heaven, as its vivid flashes wrapped the whole 

* Prescott, vol. iii. p. 205. -f Ibid. viii. p. 207 

L 16 



122 CONQUEST BY CORTEZ. 

scene in a ghastly glare, for a moment, to be again swallowed up in 
darkness. The war of elements was in unison with the fortunes of 
the ruined city. It seemed as if the deities of Anahuac, scared from 
their ancient abodes, were borne along, shrieking and howling in the 
blast, as they abandoned the fallen capital to its fate!" 

Cortes immediately assumed to himself the position which had been 
occupied by the Aztec emperor, as supreme lord of Anahuac, and 
commenced the rebuilding of the city of Mexico to serve for his own 
capital. The Indian allies, who had been so zealous in overturning 
the edifices which so adorned it, were now obliged to construct others 
to take their place. The buildings they erected are still standing, 
beautiful monuments of the wisdom of the conqueror, whose far-see- 
ing eye looked to the necessities of future generations while occupied 
with the cares of the present. The capital occupied four years in 
building, during which time the lieutenants of Cortes overran the 
country, enforcing the authority of their leader, and exploring eagerly 
for the precious metals. If any warlike tribe presumed to lift its hand 
against the new rulers, its presumption was punished with more than 
Aztec severity, as a rebellion. 

Yet while Cortes was consolidating this great monarchy, and serving 
his sovereign with such successful zeal, it was his singular fate not 
only to be destitute of any commission or authority from him, but to be 
looked upon as an undutiful and seditious subject. Fonseca, bishop 
of Burgos, whose treatment of Columbus and his son would alone have 
secured him an immortality of infamy, was the relative and friend of 
Velasquez, and consequently the most determined and powerful enemy 
of Cortes. The emperor, Charles V., had much to occupy his atten- 
tion in the Low Countries, and in his absence the affairs of Spain were 
chiefly directed by the emperor's confessor, Adrian, who afterwards 
became pope. This prelate was induced to send out Christoval de 
Tapia, as a commissioner to supersede Cortes, seize his person, con- 
fiscate his effects, and institute an inquiry into his proceedings, the 
results of which were to be sent to the council of the Indies in Spain, 
of which Fonseca was the president. But Cortes was too good a 
diplomatist to be overcome by this creature of his enemies. He bribed, 
cajoled, and overawed Tapia, and induced him to leave the country 
he was unfit to govern, even though he went to Spain to prosecute 
the cause of the conqueror's enemies before the emperor. Charles had 
now the leisure necessary to attend to the affairs of New Spain ; and 
he appointed a tribunal of the highest integrity and talent to hear the 
allegations of both parties, and deal out justice to all concerned. Be- 
fore this board the advocates of the conqueror argued his cause with 
such power and earnestness, that the decision in favour of Cortes was 



EXECUTION OF GUATEMOZIN. 



123 




Charles V. 



unanimous ; his acts were confirmed in their fullest extent, and he 
was constituted governor, captain-general, and chief justice of New 
Spain, with power to appoint all officers, civil and military, and to 
order any person to leave the country whose residence there he might 
deem prejudicial to the interests of the crown. The commission of 
the emperor, confirming Cortes in the exercise of these ample powers, 
was signed at Valladolid, October 15, 1522. 

One act more added to those by which he had sullied his fame, re- 
mains to be noticed. This was his final injustice to the unfortunate 
Guatemozin. Sandoval had found in Panuco an enemy as formidable 
as any they had hitherto encountered, and whose determined oppo- 
sition he silenced by burning sixty caciques and four hundred of their 
nobles. This act of cruelty, more atrocious than Alvarado's massacre 
of the nobles and priests in the temple of Mexico, prepared the way 
for another dreadful example of severity, committed by Cortes him- 
self. This was the execution, by hanging, of the unfortunate Guate- 
mozin, and the two caciques of Tezcuco and Tacuba, who were put 
to death without even the formality of a trial, because they were sus- 
pected, on slight evidence, of being concerned in a scheme for re- 
establishing the independence of their country. 

The accusations of his enemies caused Cortes to return to Spain 
to plead his own cause before the emperor. He was kindly received, 
and his acts sanctioned, and he returned to Mexico in 1530. In 
1540 he again went to the mother country, where he died in 1547, 
in the sixty- third year of his age. During his government of the 
country, he discovered California, and led an expedition into Hon- 



124 



CONQUEST BY CORTES. 



duras, but his enterprises were less successful than before, and he 
experienced the fate of all who distinguished themselves in the New 
World. From the emperor he received cold civility; from his min- 
isters, neglect and insolence ; from nearly all his cotemporaries, envy 
and malice, and from succeeding generations, admiration and fame.* 

* Every one who wishes for complete, detailed, and accurate information respecting 
the ancient Mexicans, the conquest by Cortes, and the subsequent career of Cortes him- 
self, should consult the admirable work of Mr. Prescott, to which we have so frequently 
referred, and which is our authority for the facts in this chapter. It is not only the best 
authority on the subject, but it is one of the most entertaining and readable books in the 
language. 





CHAPTER VI. 



MEXICO UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 



"w/r'ffl/; 



HE first thought of the conquerors was 
^ of propagandism. Cortes had seen, 
| from the hour of landing in the country, 
that the best means of securing the 
fidelity of the natives was by convert- 
ing them to Christianity, and though 
his efforts for the purpose were such as 
a soldier might be expected to make, 
violent and brutal, they were neverthe- 
less ardent and sincere. He and his 
successors had no mercy for the Mexi- 
can faith. The idols were broken and burned ; the teocallis were 
razed to the ground ; no priest was spared. Monks of both the orders 
of St. Francisco and St. Augustine, and Dominican friars, flocked 
l2 (125) 




126 MEXICO UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 

to the country during the age succeeding the conquest ; and, carried 
forward by a laudable zeal, extended the sway of the church beyond 
even that of the government. Every where they found the minds of 
the people shaken with fear, and ready, as they bent in submission 
to the strangers, to transfer their homage from Aztec idols to the 
Christian's Deity. Cortes had availed himself of the ancient tradi- 
tion respecting Quetzalcoatl, in promoting his designs against the 
empire. The priests went further, and by pious frauds endeavoured 
to make the natives believe that the Gospel had been preached in 
America at a very early period ; they found traces of their own 
faith in the Aztec code, and allowed a latitude to their liturgy hith- 
erto unexampled in the history of the church. The passion of the 
Indians for flowers was sanctified, dances and disguises were allowed 
on holidays, even in the interior of the churches ; the sacred eagle 
of the Aztecs was made to serve as an introduction for the Holy 
Spirit ; and, to sum up all in a word, every thing to which the In- 
dians were attached that did not interfere with the main articles of 
the Christian faith, was respected, and incorporated, to a greater or 
less extent, in the new ritual. This spirit of accommodation on the 
part of the clergy, joined to the settled will of the conquerors, ex- 
plains the rapid spread of the religion of the cross in the new country, 
in spite of the ardent attachment of the Mexicans to the polytheism 
of their ancestors. According to Torquemada, the Franciscans bap- 
tized six millions of converts in the period extending from 1524 to 
1540. Guatemozin, and the small remnant of Mexican nobles who 
escaped the swords of the Spaniards, embraced the new faith, and 
the royal family of Tezcuco did the same. Perhaps from the influ- 
ence of the character and precepts of the wise Nezahualcoyotl and 
his son, their successors were the most sincere in their professions of 
the new faith ; at all events, Ixtlilxochitl, the chief of the little king- 
dom, the son of Nezahualpilli, and the faithful ally of Cortes, was the 
most distinguished by his zeal in the service of the true church. He 
embraced with great affection, Father Martin, of Valentia, and twelve 
monks who accompanied him ; lodged them in the palace of his an- 
cestors ; learned from them with wonderful facility the mysteries of 
the cross and the passion, and then, taking up the work of the mis- 
sionaries, he lectured to his subjects, and, by a judicious mixture of 
precept and command, soon had them ready for baptism. The cere 
mony of baptizing began to be laborious, and the monks invented an 
ingenious plan for abridging the ceremony. They divided the mul- 
titudes into classes, and conferred the same name at the same time 
on all the individuals of a class. 

The royal preacher was even more zealous than the churchmen 



CONVERSIONS TO CHRISTIANITY. 



127 




Father Martin, of Valentia. 



themselves. The old queen, his mother, held firmly to the worship 
of her gods, and was in consequence in great danger of being burned 
alive, by her pious son. He preached to her, adduced the best of 
reasons for embracing the new faith, and finally triumphed over her 
scruples by carrying her off to the church, where she was baptized 
by the name of Mary. 

Notwithstanding the inutility of such wholesale conversion as re- 
garded many of its subjects, it was beneficial in so far as it abolished 
all visible signs of the bloody worship of the Aztecs, and prepared 
the way for the rise of sentiments of a purer cast in the bosoms of 
the natives. The violent zeal of the bishops is more clearly seen to 
have been good policy, when we learn that such of the temples as 
were hidden in the woods and mountains, and escaped destruction 
at the hands of the Christians, had their regular attendants for many 
years, some of whom, though they had received the Christian sign 
on their foreheads, preserved their attachment to their first faith in 
their hearts. There were thousands of them, however, who were 
sincere in their conversion, and who retained only one feature of 
their ancient religion, their excessive veneration for its ministers, 
which they transferred to the Christian priests. These warriors of 
the cross constantly opposed their authority to the rapacious and 
pitiless soldiers of Castile. 



128 MEXICO UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 




"^ HEY stood between the conquerors and 
the vanquished, extended the cross be- 
tween the sword and the victim, pro- 
tected weakness and misfortune every 
where ; and every where weakness and 
misfortune clung to them as the tender 
ivy clasps the sturdy oak on which it 
creeps. For ages the poor Indians 
pronounced with the greatest love and 
veneration the names of Sahagun and Las Casas. The first, whose 
Franciscan name of Sahagun was derived from the city of his birth, 
arrived in Mexico, in 1529, and immediately resolved to consecrate 
his life to consoling, instructing, and improving the condition of the 
unfortunate natives. He studied the Aztec language with such suc- 
cess that the learned among them regarded him as a classic model, 
and the remnants of the kindred dynasties of Mexico and Tezcuco, 
made him their patron and their friend. Antonio de Mendoza, the 
first viceroy of Mexico, was prevailed upon by the representations 
of the good father to found a college for the instruction of the young 
Indians, who were in turn to educate their countrymen. He spread 
abroad a feeling of enmity towards all who were interested in bru- 
talizing the people, and the good father was always found where injury 
was to be combatted, griefs consoled, or misery solaced. His death 
was a calamity deeply felt and long mourned by his unfortunate 
friends. 

The famous Las Casas rivalled him in his indefatigable zeal in the 
cause of humanity, and by his importunities and representations, the 
Spanish and papal sovereigns were induced to extend protection to 
the Indians by the authority of their edicts. These were not much 
respected, in the first ages after the conquest, it is true, and similar 
ordinances had to be issued from time to time, for the same purpose, 
but they were useful in establishing as law the principle, that, though 
legally disabled from participating in the government, the natives 
were still freed from vassalage and from burdensome taxes. 

They afterwards came under the protection of the priests, who 
exercised their patronage with laudable humanity. But in the first 
years after the conquest, the court of Madrid was unable to make its 
authority rigidly respected in America, and Mexican history presents 
a period of military anarchy, in which force and caprice usurped the 
place of right. All landholders, except the small number of nobles, 
admitted into the Spanish army, or whom alliance with the con- 
querors protected, were despoiled. To this poor nobility and its vas- 
sals were left only a small portion of land among the churches. 



CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 



129 




Las Casas. 



The aborigines were employed as beasts of burden, to carry ba«^ 
gage and drag cannon, and, as auxiliary troops, were placed in the 
front rank to receive the first weight of the enemy's onset. In the 
early expeditions of the conquerors they fought for their tyrants 
against their brothers, and death in its most awful forms, famine, and 
pestilence, swept them from the land. 

At length, when their total extinction seemed not far distant, the 
decrees of the Spanish court began to be executed, and the oppres- 
sion of the Indians was regulated, slavery took legal forms. The 
natives were attached to the soil, and shared out with it among the 
distinguished soldiers of the conquest, and the officers sent out from 
the mother country to govern the province, by means of encomiendas 
or fiefs. The holders of these fiefs, encomienderos, fortunately did 
not imitate the feudatory lords of Europe in the building of fortresses, 
but contented themselves by creating haciendas or large farms, in 
which they lived in dwellings constructed after the fashion of the 
Aztec nobility. No attempt was made to change the productions of 
the soil, and the mass of the people remained as before the conquest, 
poor and debased. They worked contentedly for their masters, 
attached themselves to their interests, and often assumed their names. 
Fortunately for them, their conquerors possessed neither the funds 

17 



130 



MEXICO UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 




.-Sea."*- --• w^lfr 



nor the knowledge necessary for mining, and consequently they were 
not forced to bury themselves under ground. The earth dragged from 
the mountains by the rivers and torrents was washed for its gold, but 
the mines were undiscovered for many years after the conquest, and 
brought but little to those who first worked them. What a great 
gain to humanity! 

HE lot of the Indians, up to the eighteenth 
century, was much the same with that of the 
European serfs ; but since then it has gradu- 
ally improved. The families of the con- 
querors became extinct, the encomiendas 
were not distributed anew, and the viceroys, 
careful of the interests of the Indians, declared 
them free, and recognized their right, as they 
belonged to themselves, to dispose of their 
own persons. The mita, forced working in the 
mines, was abolished, and this kind of labour 
became voluntary and compensated. A curious 
system of abuse, however, existed long in the country. This arose 
from the repartimientos, or forced sales made to the Indians by Spa- 
nish agents. A debt incurred by an Indian could be collected by 
reducing him to servitude, and when a Spaniard desired to buy an 
Indian, he had only to sell him a mule, a saddle, or a cloak, at any 
price he chose, and take the unfortunate fellow himself in payment. 
Charles the Third of Spain, who in many ways proved himself the 
benefactor of the Americans, put an end to this infamous system. 

For many years after the conquest, the spirit of independence agi 
tated many of the warlike nations of Mexico, and the Spanish vice- 
roys were obliged to be continually on their guard against them. 
Of these, the Chichimecs were most distinguished for their desperate 
resistance to the Spanish yoke. They were the most savage tribe 
yet encountered in America, and their ferocity was rendered still 
more formidable by their admirable discipline. Living in the forests 
on the products of nature and the chase, they became excellent 
archers and hardened warriors, and in battle they fought with a sys- 
tem and order unknown to any other Mexican tribe. They formed 
their army into battalions, seven men deep ; their ranks were close ; 
their movements regular ; and their whole field exercise so complete, 
that the Spaniards were disposed to think that a refugee from their 
own nation had been instructing them in the art of war. They were 
not content in battle with beating back an assaulting enemy ; they 
followed up their success in good order, until the camp of the enemy 
was in their possession, and the fugitives beyond their reach, when 



DEATH OF ALVARADO. 



13. 



■'= 



apKr^^iiM 




Defeat of the Quiches. 



they returned to their families to exhibit, as trophies of their prowess, 
the scalps of the slaughtered foe. While the other nations of Ana- 
huac had been weakened in the conflicts with the Spaniards, and 
each other, the Chichimecs had been gradually increasing in power 
and numbers, and they at length advanced to within fifteen leagues 
of the capital, in the province of Xalisco. The Spaniards fitted out 
an expedition from Mexico under Christoval de Onate, to conquer 
them. He experienced a complete overthrow, however, and de- 
spatched couriers for aid to Alvarado, who hastened from his pro- 
vince of Guatimala to succour him. The war was continued with the 
most desperate bravery on both sides, until the death of Alvarado. 
This was occasioned by an accident met with in battle. The enemy 
occupied a rocky mountain height, from which the assailants made 
repeated efforts to expel them. In one of these engagements, a 
horse stumbled and rolled headlong down a steep declivity ; Alvarado 
happened to be ascending the same hill, and was unable to get out 
of the way of the rolling horse, which carried him down and lay 
upon him when both reached the bottom. He was so badly crushed 
by the fall, and the irritation of his wounds caused by being carried a 
three days' journey for medical help, that he shortly afterwards expired. 
Alvarado had pursued a career since the conquest of Mexico only 



132 MEXICO UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 




Celebration of the founding of St. Jago. 



'ess glorious than that of Cortes himself. Despatched by Cortes to 
conquer Guatimala, he commenced his march in 1523, with thirty- 
five horsemen, three hundred infantry, two hundred Tlascalans and 
Cholulans, a hundred Mexicans, and four pieces of artillery. 

In Tecum Uman, the king of the Quiches, he found an enemy 
worthy to be dreaded by any of the great captains of the age. He 
assembled an army of more than two hundred thousand men, and as 
the Spaniards advanced through the Cordilleras, met them at every 
pass, and disputed their passage with the most heroic determination ; 
and the slaughter was so great that the very river ran red from the 
blood poured into it from the mountains. At length the main body 
of the Quiches and the Spaniards met in a pitched battle on the open 
plain. The king boldly singled out Alvarado, and offered him battle 
in person : it was accepted, and the royal hero fell a victim to his 
gallantry. His subjects continued the battle, however, and avenged 
his death by killing many of their enemies. They lost the battle, 
however, and the new king attempted to destroy his enemy by strata- 
gem. He was detected, however, and himself inveigled by Alvarado 
into a snare, made prisoner, and hung. The Quiches renewed the 
war, and were only subdued after repeated and terrible defeats. 

When they had once submitted to his yoke, they proved as ser- 
viceable to him in establishing his authority over the whole country, 
as the Tlascalans had been to Cortes, and the boldness and rapacity 
which had marked his course in Mexico, being tempered by the 



ERECTION OF CITIES. 



133 




Pizarro. 



lessons of prudence and watchfulness taught him there by disaster, 
fitted him for the arduous duty. 

He founded the city of St. Jago on the 25th of July, 1524, as the 
permanent seat of his new colony, and returned from his successive 
expeditions laden with wealth and covered with glory. Pursuing 
the course of conquest so brilliantly opened to him, he marched into 
South America, where he encountered the forces of Pizarro. That 
officer, however, avoided hostilities, and purchased the retreat of Al- 
varado by a magnificent present. In the full tide of prosperity, how- 
ever, the generous soldier gallantly marched to assist a brother 
Spaniard in distress, and, as we have seen, met his death, leaving the 
companions he had so often led to victory inconsolable at his loss. 

More than two years of fighting were necessary to overcome this 
able tribe, and their final reduction was only effected when the vice- 
roy, Mendoza, summoned to his aid a host of fifty thousand Indians 
of Tlascala, Cholula, and Tepeaca, who seem to have had for their 
mission the conquest of all Anahuac for the crown of Castile. Con- 
quered, but unsubjected, the Chichimecs long remained formidable, 
and the city of San Miguel was built, and those of Durango and San 
Sebastian enlarged, as a means of protection against them. There 
were, in other parts of the country, partial revolts against the Spanish 
M 



134 



MEXICO UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 




Priests welcoming the arrival of Soldiers. 



authority, but these were generally suppressed without difficulty, and 
only served to render the Spanish yoke more heavy. 

Meanwhile new cities were erected in every part of the country, 
new populations came from Spain, Cuba, and Saint Domingo, 
attracted by the fertility of the soil, the pursuit of commerce, which 
reaped many harvests ; by the demand for the productions of the new 
country, sugar, cocoa, cochineal, indigo, and cotton ; and, above all, 
by the desire of discovering natural sources of wealth, mines of gold 
and silver. The viceroys encouraged all private enterprises for these 
purposes, and the exploration and development of the new province 
was chiefly effected in this manner. The missionaries, too, did much 
to widen the limits of the empire. Entering the territories of hostile 
nations in the fearlessness which usually accompanies a high sense 
of duty, they induced the unconquerable natives to submit to theii 
spiritual sway, by the holiness of their lives, the gentleness of their 
demeanour, and their incessant, judicious exhortations. The work 
of conversion accomplished, to welcome their countrymen in arms, 
and transfer the civil allegiance of those whom they had reduced to 
spiritual subjection, was attended with little difficulty. Other expe- 
ditions were also undertaken to extend the jurisdiction of the vice- 
roys. Alvaro Nunez, surnamed Cabeca de Vaca, (one of three hun- 
dred Spaniards who had landed with Narvaez in Florida, and, 



MARCO DE NIZZA. J 35 




Marco de Nizza. 

escaping with three others from the massacre of the detachment, wan- 
dered several years across Louisiana and Mexico to the coast of the 
province of La Sonora,) published, in 1537, a mendacious account 
of his thousand hairbreadth escapes, and the wonderful nations and 
countries he had visited. Others, highly gifted with credulity and 
powers of the imagination, added to his account by stating that God 
had contributed to his escape by giving him power to heal the sick, 
and even to raise the dead, to which the modest hero added a state- 
ment, forgotten in his first narrative, that the coast of California was 
carpeted with pearls. Scarcely less marvellous was the account of 
Marco de Nizza, a monk, whom Las Casas had caused to be sent to 
convert the Indians of La Sonora. 

This functionary penetrated far to the north of the Gulf of Califor- 
nia, and returned to give a picture of the civilization of the country, 
replete with the most fantastic colouring. He described the city of 
Cibola and seven others, all imaginary, whose houses were of stone, 
two stories high, with the doors enriched with turquoises, and whose 
inhabitants ate out of gold plates. Charity towards the holy father 
compels us to admit the supposition which some have advanced, that 
the stories of Cibola and the seven sister cities grew out of an ardent 
imagination, and the ill understood accounts of the savages of the 
Casas Grandes of the Rio Gila, a supposed station of the Aztecs, 



136 MEXICO UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 

whose ruins are said, by a recent traveller, to be those of a city capable 
of containing twenty thousand inhabitants. 

The stories of Marco de Nizza led to an expedition under Vasquez 
de Coronado, whose miraculous account of his adventures, establishes 
only this truth, that he encountered a brave and hostile people, whose 
hard knocks reminded him so unpleasantly of the warm embraces of 
a young and wealthy wife whom he had left behind him, that he 
abandoned the scheme of conquest in disgust, and hastened to return 
to her. 

The intrepid Francisco Ybarra was more skilful and successful in 
the career of adventurous cupidity than his predecessors. After 
having, by order of' the viceroy, Velasco, visited and pacified a part 
of the country of Zacatecas, he discovered the mines of Saint Mar- 
tin and Saint Luke de Avino. To secure their possession he laid, 
between Zacatecas and Santa Barbara, the foundations of a succes- 
sion of cities, then gaining by the orth the valley of the Gaudiana, 
where the city of Durango was being built, he ran over the provinces 
of Topia and Sinaloa with a handful of brave followers, marking his 
passage by high deeds of arms and new colonies, to which he left a 
few men for garrisons, thus carrying the Spanish power a hundred 
leagues into the country where its name had hardly yet pene- 
trated. He afterwards returned to found the colony of Chiametta, 
in the neighbourhood of rich mines of silver. The metallic vein of 
Tasco was the first worked. Soon after those of Sultepee, Hapuja- 
hua, and Pachuca, were opened. The exploring of the different 
mines of Zacatecas followed immediately. 

*. "THOSE of Santa Barbara 

older than those of Guanaxuato. In these early days, however, the 
mines were not worked with any great activity, for though cupidity 
was not wanting, the necessary capital and means oi' extracting the 
ore were not to be had. Up to the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, the produce of all the mines of Mexico, did not amount 
to more than six hundred thousand marks of gold and silver per 
annum. 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INQUISITION. 137 



The discovery and colonization of New Mexico, the most northern 
part of New Spain, form part of the history of the sixteenth century. 
Here again the holy fathers of the church formed the van-guard, 
the armed expedition of Captain Espejo following that of the pious- 
father Augustin Ruiz, who perished a victim to his great religious 
zeal. According to the captain's report, he found the country inha- 
bited by a people who had already made considerable advances on 
the road to civilization. These small savage nations appeared, from 
their weapons and domestic customs, to be remotely allied to the 
Aztec race ; but the resemblance may have chiefly consisted in the 
remoteness of both from the enlightenment of the Europeans. Espejo 
gave an account of them abounding in fable, which was readily be- 
lieved by the governors of New Spain. Don Juan de Onate received 
a commission to take possession of his country and colonize it, which 
he did in the last year of the sixteenth century. The banks of the 
Rio del Norte were peopled with Europeans, and the seventeenth 
century was commenced by an effort on the part of Christianity to 
extend its influence over the Indians, to plant the cross in the midst 
of savages who were then and are yet the terror of the Spanish race. 
From their constant hostility has arisen the want of equilibrium in 
the population of New Mexico, the effect of the people clustering 
round the towns and cities as a means of defence. 

HILE New Spain was thus extending 
her limits, the provincial council of 
1585 laid in Mexico the foundation 
of the organization and discipline of 
the church, and proceeded to reforms 
which met the approval of Sextus V. 
Among these was the repeal of a de- 
cree made by a council which had 
assembled thirty years before, that no 
native should become a priest. The 
baseness of their condition might, it 
was feared, throw discredit upon the 
ecclesiastical state ; but the council of 1585, provided for the admis- 
sion of the aborigines to the sacred orders, at first, it is true, under 
severe restrictions, which, as time wore away, these came to be dis- 
regarded, and the red race numbered the greater part of the clergy 
at the time of the revolution. The Inquisition also established itself 
in Mexico during the sixteenth century. The fiscal arrangements 
of the church began to be oppressive to the poor Indians, who at 
first attempted revolt ; but found that this only made their burden 
heavier, and therefore adopted quiet submission as their best policy. 
m2 18 




138 



MEXICO UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 




The Spanish government also injured their lot, by forbidding them, 
upon pain of death, to cultivate the vine or the olive tree, and 
reserving to herself a monopoly of other branches of agriculture, and 
many of the most productive manufactures. Two visitations of con- 
tagion in 1545 and 1577, carried off two millions five hundred thou- 
sand of the poor aborigines. 

PAIN, anxious to hide from the other 
nations of Europe, all the riches of her 
conquests in the New World, shrouded 
with mystery every thing connected 
them. The only accounts of Mexico at 
this early day, are such as were published by 
travellers, who drew upon their imaginations 
for the greater part of their facts, and in whose 
statements not the least reliance can be placed. 
The principal authority for the internal affairs of 
this inaccessible country during the latter half of the seventeenth 
century, is the work of Thomas Gage, whose severity in handling the 
Mexican priesthood, may furnish an explanation of the zeal with 
which his work was decried. He introduces his readers into the 
convents and religious institutions of New Spain, and describes the 
monks as greedy of riches and worldly pleasures, and winking at the 
excesses of the people in order to get their wealth into their own 
coffers. The fathers of mercy are exhibited to us as they proceed to 
the election of a new provincial, disputing in the commencement, and 
terminating by a conflict with knives. On either side, the good monks 
displayed so lively a zeal in the cause of their favourite candidate, that 
the intervention of the viceroy and his guard became necessary in 
order to prevent the election from terminating even less canonically. 

The same traveller tells us another story, which speaks very 
favourably for the compassion of the priesthood for the people. 
However heavy they made the ecclesiastical yoke, they were not 
willing that the viceroys should add, in any considerable degree, to 
the civil burden of the natives. In 1624, there occurred a great 
struggle between the archbishop, Alonzo de Zerna, and the viceroy, 
the Marquis de Gelves. The latter was an able governor, strictly 
just, and the terror of all evil doers, yet unfortunately the qualities 
of a good statesman were tarnished by his insatiable avarice. His 
cupidity inspired him with a desire of speculating in corn, and his 
agent, Don Pedro Mexio, equally avaricious with himself, rich and 
very adroit, purchased all the harvest in the countries near the capital, 
and when master of the market, fixed the price at what he pleased. 
The starving people came to the viceroy for redress. But he was * 



FLIGHT OF THE VICEROY. 139 

party to the transaction, and of course they were not listened to. 
They then applied to the archbishop, whose only means of assistance 
was spiritual thunder, very great quantities of which were fulminated 
against the offender. Mexio was excommunicated. He raised the 
price of corn. The prelate laid the capital under an interdict; avery 
unselfish measure, when it is considered that he thereby cut off from 
the church revenues the sum of six hundred dollars daily, which 
would have been received for the saying of masses. 

The viceroy in vain attempted to have the interdict taken off, and 
therefore ordered the arrest of the archbishop as a disturber of the 
public peace and guilty of high treason. The bishop took refuge in 
his cathedral as in an inviolable asylum, put on his robes of office, 
and placed himself on the steps of the altar, holding in one hand the 
holy sacrament, and in the other his crozier. But one Tirol, the chief 
of the officers of justice, whose familiarity with crime had probably 
seared his conscience, speedily convinced the worthy prelate of the 
weakness of his defences, by arresting him. The viceroy then con- 
ducted him, under a strong guard, to Vera Cruz, and shipped him to 
Spain in a state vessel. But the priests inveighed against this high- 
handed measure, and roused the passions of the mob, who attempted 
to wreak their vengeance on Tirol. He fled for safety to the palace 
of the viceroy, and thereby turned the tide of popular resentment 
against that officer himself. The mob burst open the prison doors, 
and receiving an accession to their force from its inmates, prepared 
to storm the palace. The viceroy had the royal standard raised, 
and the trumpet blown, as a signal of danger to the Spaniards. But 
they were equally opposed to a monopoly of the corn market, and no 
one moved in any manner to effect his deliverance. He therefore fled 
in the disguise of a monk, while the mob overpowered his little guard, 
broke into the palace, and pillaged it. The viceroy remained in the 
convent where he first found refuge, for the rest of the year. Alarmed 
at such a wicked example, the court of Spain hastened to send out a 
new viceroy, with an inquisition of Valladolid, charged to punish 
those concerned in the rebellion. These were so many, and persons 
of so great importance besides, that he was obliged to content him- 
self with hanging a few miserable wretches, who ought to have re- 
joiced at their deliverance from the ills of life, and with deposing 
some of the public functionaries. 

On this occasion, however, the Creoles and red men gave vent to 
their hatred of the metropolitan government, and indicated what might 
be expected of them should an opportunity occur for shaking off the 
Spanish yoke. 

Another evidence of the regard of the priests for the people was 



140 MEXICO UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 

given by the Archbishop Manzo y Zuniga, who, when the city of 
Mexico was inundated by the waters of the lake, distinguished him- 
self by his benevolence. The city had suffered from the rising of the 
waters in 1553, 1580, 1604, and 1607, and repeated attempts had 
been made to avert the danger. At one time sixteen thousand na- 
tives were employed upon the construction of an aqueduct, which, 
however, was abandoned before completion, in consequence of the 
preference given by the court at Madrid to a Dutchman named Adrien 
Boot, who proposed to prevent all damage by a system of dikes, 
which was, in fact, the Indian system. On the 20th of June, 1629, 
the city of Mexico was inundated to the depth of more than three 
feet.* The inundation lasted five years, during which time the misery 
of the lower classes was very great. The streets were only passable 
in boats ; and day after day the good archbishop might be seen pad- 
dling about in his canoe, as he bore bread and blessings to the un- 
fortunate and suffering poor. At length the viceroy caused the 
image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to be brought to the city of Mex- 
ico, and paraded about the streets, to which circumstance, as well 
as to an earthquake, which happened about this time, and changed 
very much the surface of the valley, so as to form a natural drain, is 
no doubt owing the deliverance of the city, in 1634. 

//// J^CjMT ^ * ne year 1680, the attention of the bucca- 
// ^^^JlZJ neers was attracted to the coast of Mexico, and 
|jggj§jjg|pBp||^|^ three years afterwards two Dutchmen, and a 
^ ^Z^^^^ ^^^M : - Frenchman, named Grammont, made a descent 
W^^^^^^^^^^ upon new Vera Cruz, at the head of twelve 
I^J'ral^^^^^to' hundred men. They entered the city in the 
^ ^^^^MJ^^^m! night; Graff, one of the leaders, seized the 
fllIlg|§ig5fr=L^= fortress, with its twelve guns, and turned them 
on the city. The Spaniards, aroused by the 
artillery, flew to arms, and a severe contest ensued, in which the 
buccaneers were victorious. They took a great many prisoners, some 
of them the most noble and wealthy citizens. These they shut up in 
a church, so disposed that they could blow it up at any time, and 
then pillaged the city, bearing all the valuables to their vessels. They 
secured twelve or fifteen hundred thousand dollars in this way, and 
then bargained with their prisoners for a ransom. They at length 
freed them, on receiving two millions of piastres, and sailed away 
with their booty. Two years afterwards the same adventurers, under 
the command of Grammont, captured Campeachy, where they re- 
mained two months, employed in pillage. During this time, Gram- 

* A meter. 







THE JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. 141 

mont celebrated the festival, in commemoration of St. Louis of France, 
by burning, in a bonfire, dyewood to the value of a million of 
francs. 

,~- — ^ N the Pacific coast, Mexico was more for- 
tunate. There the Jesuit missionaries 
advanced to the peaceful conquest of 
California, about which very little had, up 
to this time been known. These zealous 
Christians had to struggle against every difficulty, 
the rivalry and enmity of the Franciscans, the con- 
dition of the savages, and the want of protection 
from their government. They steadily prosecuted their labours, 
however, and in time obtained a complete triumph. They not only 
converted the natives, and obtained for themselves the spiritual 
government of California, but all the soldiers sent into the country 
were under the orders of the spiritual father. From 1697 to 1721, 
they were particularly active in exploring the coasts, and determin- 
ing the character of the peninsula, its geological features, and the 
nature of its productions. 

The Jesuits were the conquerors of the country. They subdued it 
with their most powerful weapon, the Holy Scriptures. Their esta- 
blishments, during the first sixty years of the eighteenth century, were 
in full progress. There were then sixteen principal missions, on 
which more than forty villages were dependent. The Jesuits dis- 
played in the work of civilization, apostolic zeal ; commercial 
industry, prudent and wise administration, and the activity to which 
so much of their success is to be attributed, and which exposed them 
to so many calamities in the Indies. Fanaticism did not guide their 
steps. They came among the savages of California with toys and 
curiosities to amuse them, and wheat to nourish them. The hatred 
of this people for the Spanish name was vanquished by the benevo- 
lence of their instructers. They made themselves carpenters, 
masons, weavers, architects, and agriculturalists. Since their expul- 
sion, in 1767, the administration of California was confided to the 
Dominicans of Mexico, and the prosperity of the missions vanished 
with their skilful founders. 

The whole of the territories held by the Spaniards in America was 
divided into four viceroyalties, Mexico, Peru, Buenos Ayres, and 
New Grenada ; and five captain-generalships, Yucatan, Guatimala, 
Venezuela, Chili, and the Island of Cuba. The captain-generals 
were independent of the viceroys, and these latter of each other. 
In Mexico, the viceroy was invested with royal prerogatives, and 
considered as alter ego of the king himself. The only checks upon 



142 MEXICO UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 

his authority were the Residencia and the Audiencia, one a legbl 
investigation into his conduct, which might be instituted by the king 
on his return to the mother country, and the other a court of appeal, 
which held its sittings in the colony. The Residencia was seldom if 
ever ordered, and the viceroy held the office of honorary president 
of the Audiencia, and usually was on the best of terms with it. The 
power of the Audiencia, however, was considerable : it exercised a 
control over all other tribunals, ecclesiastical as well as civil, except 
the object of litigation exceeded in value ten thousand dollars, and it 
possessed the power of communicating directly with the Council of 
the Indies, which had been created by Ferdinand II., in 1511, for 
the exclusive superintendence of the affairs of the colonies. The 
members of the Audiencia were always selected with the greatest 
care, and every possible measure was taken to keep them distinct 
from the natives, in interest and feelings. They, with the viceroys, 
and the children of all, were forbidden to intermarry with a Creole, 
or to engage in trade, or even to hold property in the country over 
which they presided. In the event of the viceroy's decease, the 
oldest auditor exercised the functions of the regent until a new vice- 
roy was appointed. Other privileges were held by the members of 
this court, which more than compensated for the domestic restrictions 
laid upon them. 

HE laws by which the province was governed were in- 
volved in such a state of chaos that to obtain justice in 
any case seemed almost hopeless. The " Recopilacion 
de las Leyes de las Indias," or " General Collection of 
the Laws of the Indies," is the name given in Spanish 
jurisprudence to a heterogeneous mass of statutes by 
which, during the last three centuries, the decisions of the Mexican 
tribunals were supposed to be regulated. These were merely de- 
crees upon different subjects emanating directly from the king or the 
council of the Indies, often contradictory, having no other connection 
with each other than what arose from their being bound up and pub- 
lished together in four folio volumes. No attempt was made to classify 
them, and they presented throughout glaring inconsistencies. Every 
new case became the subject of a new decree, which, immediately upon 
its publication, acquired the force of law, and tended still further to 
complicate the judicial code. The decrees not contained in the 
Recopilacion were more numerous than those which were, and many 
of both were repealed by subsequent statutes, and finally the best 
lawyers themselves could not distinguish between those decrees which 
were in force, those which were dead letters, and those which had 
been wholly or in part annulled. Of course the defendant could always 





MUNICIPAL ESTABLISHMENTS. 143 

find some decree which sheltered him from the penalty of the injuries 
he had inflicted on others ; and corruption in the administration of 
justice was never at a loss for a plea amid the multiplicity and con- 
trariety of the laws. 

HIS confusion was increased by the Fueros, or special 
privileges, enjoyed by the different professional and 
corporate bodies. Thus there were Fueros of the 
clergy, embracing every class or body connected in 
any way with the church ; Fueros of all persons em- 
ployed in public offices, of the merchants, of the 
militia, the navy, the engineers, the artillery corps ; 
in short, Fueros of almost every thing. These special privileges 
exempted those who chose to make use of them, from the jurisdiction 
of the ordinary authorities, and made them amenable in civil and 
criminal causes, to the tribunal of the chief of that body to which they 
belonged. It may be readily seen that the principal sufferers by this 
state of things were the native Mexicans, who sought in vain for jus- 
tice against a Spaniard, protected by his own race in his misdeeds, 
and armed with the right of appealing to one or more tribunals of 
those whose community of interest enlisted their feelings and judg- 
ment on his side in advance. 

The municipal establishments retained some vestiges of freedom. 
The Cabildos, or municipalities of the towns, were composed of regi- 
dores and alcaldes, who were for a long time elected by the people, 
and who always regarded them with affection, and looked to them 
for protection. They were connected with the people by innumer- 
able ties, and at the commencement of the revolution we find them 
becoming every where the organs of the people. It was their de- 
cided course of action, in fact, which brought matters to a crisis 
between the Creoles and the mother country. It is very singular 
that this should be the case, when, for many ages before the revolu- 
tion, the right of election had been every where merely nominal, the 
offices in some places being sold out to the highest bidders, and in 
others made the reward of military services, and subject to the laws 
of military succession and government. Thus it was not unfre- 
quently the case that a corporal, in the absence of his superior officers, 
administered the laws in a town of a hundred wealthy landholders, 
whose only resource against the decrees of his ignorance was an ap- 
peal to an audiencia, a proceeding attended with the greatest trouble 
and expense. In such a state of affairs the administration of the laws 
furnished the privileged classes with a ready means of oppression 
and they availed themselves of it to such an extent that the " law' 
delay" was by no means the worst feature of a Mexican lawsuit. 




144 MEXICO UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 

THE ecclesiastical establishments 
in America were independent of the 
Pope. Alexander VI., in 1502, con- 
stituted Ferdinand II., of Spain, the 
effectual head of the American church, 
and his successors ever afterwards 
displayed the greatest firmness in re- 
sisting every thing like an attempt at 
encroachment of the Holy See upon 
their independent spiritual jurisdic- 
tion over the American provinces. 
The indulgences and dispensations 
Alexander VI. were bought up by the Spanish king, 

and his agents at Rome, cheap, and 
retailed at a great profit to the subjects in the New World. The 
crown held the monopoly of this lucrative trade, and resisted every 
effort of the popes to obtain a greater share of it than they were will- 
ing to allow. 

Every feature of the colonial policy of the Spaniards tended to 
the great end of their system, to teach all classes to look to the king, 
and to him alone for preferment. Another most important branch 
of the government was the collection of the customs and revenue, in 
which a host of officers was employed, under the direction of the 
Intendentes, each of whom presided over a particular district, the 
boundaries of which were so well defined, that they have served to 
regulate the number and boundaries of the states now composing the 
republic. The Intendentes held their authority from the king through 
the Council of the Indies, were possessed of the right to determine 
all questions respecting the revenues, and were wholly independent 
of the viceroy. The viceroy commanded the troops in person, and 
filled up all vacancies in the army. He was assisted in the discharge 
of his duties by a Junta de Guerra, or council of war, and a fiscal or 
legal adviser. 

The theory of the government of Mexico, under the Spaniards, is 
much better than is generally supposed ; but its practical working 
was nothing more than the application of the whole political power 
of the crown to the maintenance of a system of revenue laws, by 
which the interest of the colonies was entirely sacrificed to that of the 
mother country. 

The intentions of the first framers of the laws were conciliatory 
towards the Creoles, and the Recopilacion frequently and strongly 
insists upon the equality of Americans and Europeans, and makes 
any subject of the crown eligible to the highest dignity, not ex- 



CUPIDITY OF THE VICEROYS. 145 

cepting that of viceroy. Yet in practice the Creoles were totally 
excluded from any participation in the government. Every situ- 
ation in the gift of the crown, from that of viceroy down to the 
lowest revenue officer, was bestowed upon a European, and for 
many years before the revolution, no instance is afforded in which 
the door of promotion was opened to a native, into either the church, 
the army, or the law. A class of men was thus disseminated 
throughout the country distinct from the natives in feelings, habits, 
and interest, who looked upon themselves as members of a privileged 
caste, owing all to Spain, and exclusively devoted to her. They had 
in their hands all the revenues of the country, and their chief study 
was how to rob Mexico of the greatest capital possible. They went 
thither to reside for a time, and they hastened to return, in order to 
deposit under the paternal roof the fruits of their robbery. The vice- 
roys set a splendid example of this cupidity. With a salary fixed at 
sixty thousand dollars, they found means to disburse two or three 
times that amount yearly, and return to Spain, after some years of 
vice-regal life, with several millions of economical dollars. They 
monopolized to themselves the king's right to dispose of mercury, 
they sold to the Creoles the right to assume empty titles, and to the 
merchants of Mexico and Vera Cruz the more substantial rights to 
import prohibited foreign articles into the country. Sometimes the 
viceroys shared in the profits of the contraband trade without incurring 
any of the risk. The good understanding always maintained between 
the Spaniards in the country, rendered it impossible for a Mexican to 
enter into competition with them in commerce, and European hands 
held the whole trade of the country. All functionaries, great and 
small, went to the greatest limits in plundering the people on one 
hand, and the king on the other, and the business of office holding 
was so good, that many lived excellently well, who received no legal 
compensation whatever for their services. In fact, candidates for 
merely honorary offices were numerous, and sometimes they paid high 
prices for a title which gave them the privilege of robbing Mexico. 

The complaints of the unfortunate people were fruitless against the 
combination of Spaniards. The feeling of clanship among the latter 
became at last a passion, to which even the natural feelings were 
sacrificed. The son, born of a Creole mother, was considered inferior 
to the Castilian clerk, for whom the hand of the daughter of the family 
was reserved, with a large portion of the wealth; and a Spanish 
father, when irritated at his child's misdemeanours, would call him 
" creole," the formula of the most profound contempt it was possible 
for him to express. A proof of the extent of this evil is clearly seen 
in the violence of the reaction after the revolution, when the name 
N 19 




146 MEXICO UNDER THE SPANIARDS. 

of Spaniard entailed on its possessor a full title to every kind of pro- 
scription. 

PAIN, though vigilant in all that concerned her 
financial interests, suffered them to be so totally 
mismanaged, that from Mexico, where the official 
revenue was stated at twenty millions of dollars, 
she received only six millions annually, the rest 
being swallowed up in expenses in the New World. 
Every attempt to reform these matters was made, 
by adding new laws, which merely complicated 
the system. Meanwhile, the Mexican was kept in total ignorance, 
and taught to believe his own situation preferable to that of all 
mankind, because he belonged to a nation superior in power and 
dignity to the rest of the world. 

The principal causes of the Revolution, however, were the restric- 
tions with which commerce and industry were fettered. The prefer- 
ence given to the Spaniards in public offices did not act directly upon 
the people, who seldom aspired to govern. But the monopoly, sup- 
ported by the authorities of Spain and Mexico, bore heavily upon 
them. The full amount of the injustice was made visible to them day 
by day, as they were called upon to pay with an equal weight of pre- 
cious metals for those European articles in general use, and above 
all, for those which their own countrymen would have produced so 
cheaply and abundantly, if they had not been prohibited. While 
Spain undertook to supply every market of her colonies, it is noto- 
rious that she herself produced scarcely any thing. She was in reality 
merely a merchant dealing out to her colonies the productions of in- 
dustrious Europe, which reaped all the actual benefit resulting from 
the discovery of the transatlantic sources of wealth. 

Such is a faint outline of the miserable system by which Spain 
governed all her colonies for three centuries. It was a system which 
could not endure long, when the power to enforce it was not retained. 
It is an immutable law of human affairs, that every system where the 
advantages are not reciprocal, where the governed do not derive be- 
nefit as well as the governors, should fall with the power which has 
established it. Such was the case in Mexico. The events which 
occurred in Europe in the beginning of the nineteenth century, de- 
veloped in the minds of the Mexicans ideas of independence which 
had never before been popular enough to be translated even into 
words, but which were now speedily to develop themselves in 
actions. The French revolution, upturning the whole system of 
European despotism, diffused somewhat of its spirit into the benighted 
provinces of Spanish America, and caused the promulgation of sen- 



REFLECTIONS. 



147 



timents among the people, which otherwise would have remained 
the favourite theme of a few philosophers, who might, in the silence 
of the closet, arrange an ideal drama of the revolution, but who 
would recoil in horror from the very thought of putting it into 
action. 

It is the misfortune of the people of Mexico, that their condition 
under the Spaniards was such as to cut them off from all means of 
improvement in the political science. To the sister republic of the 
United States, political intelligence, and a keen foresight of coming 
oppression, shed a clear light upon the struggle for national inde- 
pendence ; but in Mexico it was the instinctive resistance to intoler- 
able oppression, borne for centuries by the country, which nerved the 
arm of the patriot ; and when liberated from the foreign oppressor, 
the unfortunate Mexican was still to be subject to all the horrors of 
domestic military despotism, which substituted perpetual convulsions 
and civil feuds, for the previous dead calm of unmitigated despotism. 




Mexican Gentlemen. 




Hidalgo. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION. 



HE intelligent observer, Humboldt, 
remarks that in 1803, the great ma- 
jority of the people of Mexico were 
indifferent to political rights, and 
not likely to join in any effort to 
acquire them. It did not escape 
his close scrutiny, however, that 
the higher clases of the Creoles 
were irritated by the political in- 
significance to which they were. 
condemned, and that they regarded 
the mother country with sullen 
hatred, and her once formidable 
resources with contempt. These feelings formed the germ of the 
revolution, and favourable circumstances soon called them into ac- 
tion. At the commencement of 1808, the government of Mexico 
was intrusted to Don Jose Iturrigaray, and the vice regal authority 
seemed to be as firmly established as at any former period. The 
country was tranquil, the people were occupied in their regular pur- 
suits, and there could be detected nothing in the general calm to 
indicate the approaching tempest. 
(148) 




IMPRISONMENT OF THE VICEROY. 149 

The agitation commenced on the receipt of the news of the over- 
throw of the king of Spain by the Emperor Napoleon. The viceroy 
communicated the intelligence to the government gazette ; but sin- 
gularly enough added no comments to it concerning his future 
movements. In a few days, however, he became convinced of the 
error he had committed in not giving a direction to men's thoughts 
upon such startling information. He attempted to remedy it by a 
proclamation, soliciting the support of the people, and announcing 
his determination to preserve, in all emergencies, his fidelity to his and 
their sovereign. The people received his publication with acclama- 
tions, rejoicing greatly in the fact that they had been considered more 
than ciphers for once, than in the viceroy's loyalty. A kindly feel- 
ing sprung up between Iturrigaray and the people, who poured in 
upon him from every quarter, through their ayuntamientos, the most 
loyal addresses. A new feeling had been awakened, however, which 
very soon displayed itself. The ayuntamiento of the capital pro- 
posed the creation of a junta, in imitation of the mother country, and 
the convocation of a national Mexican assembly, composed of depu- 
ties from the different provinces. 

The viceroy was not inimical to the proposition, but the Audi- 
encia protested against it as opposed both to the privileges of the 
crown and of the Europeans, and the dispute between that body and 
the governor ran high, it was finally ended by a band of Europeans 
in the service of the Audiencia, who surprised the viceroy in his 
palace in the night, September 15th, and carried him to prison. The 
Audiencia justified the measure by proclaiming Iturrigaray to the 
lower classes as a heretic, and formed juntas of public security, and 
organized armed bands of Spaniards, who under the curious title of 
patriots, watched zealously the conduct of all who were suspected of 
being favourable to the imprisoned viceroy. Many persons were 
arrested, and banished or imprisoned, and the vice-regal authority was 
confided for the time to the archbishop Lizana. The moderate dis- 
position of this prelate, however, did not suit the fiercer tempers of 
his coadjutors, and he was replaced in 1809, by the Audiencia, to 
whom the supreme authority was confided by the central junta of 
Spain. The feeling of opposition was spreading throughout the 
country rapidly, and the arrogance and violence of the Audiencia 
soon brought matters to a crisis. Its character may be fairly esti- 
mated from that of one of its principal members, the oidor Bataller, 
who was wont to say that " while a Manchego mule, or a Castilian 
cobbler remained in the peninsula, he had a right to govern the 
Americans." Every where a most impatient desire to shake off the 
Spanish yoke 'began to be manifested, and the authorities in vain 
n2 



150 MEXICAN REVOLUTION. 

attempted to check the insurrectionary movements by arresting all 
who could be detected in concerting them. When suppressed at one 
point, the discontent broke out with additional violence at another ; 
the scene of the difficulty only was changed. At length, in the pro- 
vince of Guanaxuato, the cura, Hidalgo, roused his countrymen into 
action. 

Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was a man of very superior acquire- 
ments. His reading was extensive, the town of Dolores, of which 
he was the cura, exhibited many proofs of his activity and intelli- 
gence in the manufactures of the parishioners, and the culture of the 
silkworm, which he had encouraged and introduced. He had planted 
vineyards of a great extent in the neighbourhood of the town, and 
thereby increased the resources of his curacy, but an order from the 
capital destroyed the results of his labours, and threw his people into 
great distress. Thus private injury was added to his sense of public 
wrong, and perhaps added to the stern inexorable spirit in which he 
waged the contest with the equally stubborn and unrelenting Spa- 
niards, and which stamped upon the revolution in the very onset a 
sanguinary character which it maintained throughout. He proceeded 
in his movement with little caution, and the government had formed 
a plan to crush his intended revolt at once, by arresting him and his 
principal associates. This merely hastened the execution of his 
scheme, and they commenced the revolution with Allende, and ten 
of his parishioners, on the 16th of September, 1810. On that day he 
seized and imprisoned seven Europeans, resident in the town of Do- 
lores, and distributed their property among his followers. The flame 
thus lighted spread through the country, according to the Spanish 
accounts, with the rapidity of the atmospheric plague. 

N twenty-four hours the number of his partisans had be- 
come so numerous that he was enabled, on the 17th 
of September, to take possession of San Felipe, and 
on the 18th, of San Miguel el Grande, towns of ten 
thousand inhabitants each. In both places the con- 
fiscated property of the Spaniards gave him the means 
of still further increasing his force. A determination 
to rise against the established order of things was 
every where manifested ; men, unconnected with politics, landowners, 
resident upon their estates in the most remote provinces, curas, 
whose lives had been passed in the midst of their parishioners, and 
young men educated for the law or the church, and just emerging 
from the university, all flew to arms, and embarked at once in a con- 
test for which they were supposed to be wholly unprepared. Hidalgo 
next took Guanaxuato, and stormed the public granary, in which the 




CAPTURE OF VALLADOLID. 151 

intendant had fortified himself. Here was captured a treasure worth 
nearly five millions of dollars, consisting of the gold, silver, mercury, 
and valuables of the royal treasury, and all the personal riches of the 
Spaniards, who had shut themselves up with the intendant. The 
Indians, after the action was over, behaved with the utmost cruelty, 
putting to death every European that fell into their hands. On the 
morning after the action, there was not a single house left standing 
that had belonged to a European. Hidalgo made no attempt to re- 
strain them, either because he desired to have them commit them- 
selves beyond the possibility of pardon, or because he was powerless 
to restrain the first outbreaks of a ferocity which had lain so long 
dormant. During his stay at Guanaxuato he established a mint, and 
cast the bells, which he had captured, into cannon. The treasures he 
had taken made his movement a matter of dread to the royalists, and his 
standard a rallying point for all adventurers and revolutionary parti- 
sans. Two days before the insurrection in Dolores, a new viceroy, 
Don Francisco Xavier Venegas, had been installed. He was a man 
of great abilities, and the measures he took to put down Hidalgo's 
movements were well calculated to effect that object. On the 10th 
of October, the revolutionary chief moved from Guadalaxara, and 
captured Valladolid. On the 19th he left that city, and on the 28th, 
with fifty thousand men, reached Toluca, a town within twelve 
h agues of the capital. Venegas had assembled a force of seven 
thousand men, which he disposed of in the most advantageous man- 
ner for the defence of the town. A corps of observation was sta- 
tioned on the Toluca road, under the command of Colonel Truxillo, 
assisted by Don Augustin Iturbide, then a lieutenant in the Mexican 
service. 

Hidalgo defeated this corps on the 30th of October, at Las duces, 
and it was expected that he would immediately advance upon the 
capital ; but, for various reasons, he thought proper to retreat. His 
Indians were totally undisciplined, and since he had seen them cut 
down by hundreds at Las Cruces, in the sage endeavour to stop the 
cannons' mouths of the enemy with their straw hats, he had no hope of 
their being able to face for a moment the batteries which, he was Avell 
aware, Venegas would raise for the support of the capital. His whole 
army was but an undisciplined rabble ; ammunition was very scarce, 
and Calleja, who was leading a body of troops against him from San 
Luis Potosi, was daily expected to fall upon his rear. 

Hidalgo soon fell in with the advanced guard of Calleja's army, 
and both parties prepared for the battle, in the plains of Aculco, No- 
vember 7th, 1810. Calleja was extremely anxious about the result 
of this meeting, as the greater part of his army was composed of 



152 MEXICANREVOLUTION. 




Calleja. 



Creole regiments, who, he feared, would fraternize with their oppo- 
nent^ Such would probably have been the case had it not been for 
the disorderly manner in which the followers of Hidalgo dispersed, 
in the very beginning of hostile movements, and commenced firing 
at random against all who came within their reach. This exasperated 
he Creoles who now pressed eagerly forward, and speedily decided 
the fate of the day. From this time until 1821, the Creoles were the 
chief support of the Spanish power, and the inveterate enemies of the 
insurgents. Had the soldiers of Hidalgo been at all disciplined, or 
the conduct and measures of Calleja less mollifying and skilful, the 
Creoles would have embraced the other side of the question, and the 
war of independence would have been ended at once. Escaping 
with his general officers from the bloody field of Aculco, Hidalo-o 
collected as many of the fugitives as he could, and retreated to Val- 
ladolid. Allende, his second in command, retreated on Guanaxuato, 
whither he was pursued by Calleja. He immediately evacuated the 
place when the people flew to the fort, in which Hidalgo had for- 
merly left two hundred and forty-nine Europeans as prisoners, and 
massacred them all. The blood had not ceased to flow from their 
dead bodies, ere Calleja was at the gate, and he commenced the 
work of retaliation by ordering his troops to give no quarter. This 
order was countermanded after many were slain, and a sentence of 
decimation was pronounced against a part of the population. HidaW 
arrived at Valladolid on the 14th of November, and allowed his fol- 
lowers some days of repose. Here he was joined by the advocate 
Don Ignacio Lopez Rayon, whom he appointed his confidential 
secretary, and who afterwards took an active part in the revolution 



EXECUTION OF HIDALGO. 



153 



by establishing the Junta of Zitacuaro, the first step towards creating 
an independent government, and one which systematized the revolu- 
tion, and gave a character of respectability to the patriot cause which 
it had not before possessed. 

On the 24th of November, Hidalgo made a public entry into 
Guadalaxara, where he was soon after joined by Allende. He pro- 
cured a number of cannons from San Bias, on the western coast, and 
though he had only twelve hundred muskets in the army, he deter- 
mined to risk a battle, hoping that he would command success by his 
artillery. Before the battle, however, he committed deeds of cruelty 
which have stamped his name with an immortality of infamy. All the 
Europeans in Guadalaxara had been thrown into prison on his arrival 
there, and the number was so great that it was necessary to distribute 
them among the different convents. On a pretended suspicion of a 
conspiracy among them, he caused them to be taken out at night to the 
retired part of the mountains near the city, where they were butchered 
in cold blood by the general's creatures. He had caused eighty 
Spaniards to be beheaded while he was at Valladolid, but at Guada- 
laxara the number amounted to between seven and eight hundred. 

ALLEJA at length marched 
to the north, and on the 16th 
of January, 1811, arrived at 
the bridge of Calderon, six- 
teen leagues from Guadalax- 
ara, where the insurgents were fortified, 
awaiting his approach. On the 17th 
a battle was fought, which terminated 
like that of Aculco. The Mexicans 
repulsed two or three attacks, in one 
of which the Creole regiments lost their 
able commander, the Conde de la Cadena ; but the explosion of an 
ammunition wagon threw Hidalgo's ranks into disorder, and the fate 
of the day was soon decided. His troops had fought much better than 
before, however, and their loss was much less. He retreated with 
Allende in an orderly manner, while Rayon went back to Guadalax- 
ara to carry off the military chest, which contained three hundred 
thousand dollars. They all met again at Saltillo. There it was de- 
cided that Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama, and Abasalo, should proceed 
to the United States to purchase arms and military stores. They 
were captured on the road, on the 21st of March, 1811, by the 
treachery of a former associate, and after a long trial, protracted to 
obtain from them all possible information, they were all shot. They 





met death with firmness. 



20 



154 MEXICAN REVOLUTION. 

We have been thus particular with the account of Hidalgo's rise 
and fall, as the opening scene of the revolutionary drama, and be- 
cause it shows the general character of the war. A guerilla warfare 
now succeeded under Rayon, Muniz, Navarrete, Serrano, Osorno, 
and others. Although the authority of the viceroy was acknowledged 
in the principal towns, the partisans were so numerous that the com- 
munication between them was unsafe, and the sentinels were lassoed 
at the very gates; the country was devastated, and hardly a day 
passed without some hostile action. Under Rayon's auspices, a cen- 
tral junta was established 10th September, 1811. 

y / ~ T Valladolid, when Hidalgo was on 

A 0i n//\\ ki s march towards the city of Mexico, 
*V, / lit Jh U his army was joined by Don Jose Maria 
HI / JSLL Morelos, cura of Nucupetaro, to whom 

IwLl Jlfi^T'W^ Hidalgo immediately gave a com- 

|^^^^^^^^\ mission to command in chief on the 
tifflffilBm illi™^J whole south-western line of coast. He 

IH C^W^Bl'^^f^^^l accepted the commission, and set out 
J|tA^^^KM^^W October 10th, with five followers, 
g^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Sr armed with six old muskets. His 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^g^p 1 . confidence in his own resources was 
^llllglgi lUlF not misplaced. By the end of No- 

~ i -^ll^S3?= = vember he was at the head of a thou- 

sand men, whom he laboured diligently to discipline, although he 
was greatly in want of arms. On the night of the 25th of January, 
1811, he surprised the camp of the royalist captain, Don Francisco 
Paris, who commanded a numerous and well-appointed body of 
troops. He gained a complete victory, capturing eight hundred 
muskets, five pieces of artillery, a large quantity of ammunition, a 
considerable amount of money, and seven hundred prisoners, all of 
whom he treated with the greatest humanity. From this moment 
his progress was astonishing, and the skill with which he baffled the 
efforts of the divisions sent against him, soon made him the terror of 
the Spaniards, and the admiration of his countrymen. Jose and An- 
tonio and Ermenegildo Galeana, the cura Matamoros, the three 
Bravos, and Victoria, all men of character and eminence, fought 
under his banner with great gallantry. The year 1811 passed in 
continual warfare, by which his renown so increased that Calleja 
marched against him with an army flushed with victory in the cam- 
paign against Hidalgo. Morelos made a stand at Cuautla Amilipas, 
an entirely open town, twenty-two leagues from the capital. Calleja, 
on his way to Cuautla, drove the junta out of the town of Zitacuaro, 
and destroyed the place. This town was well fortified, and their 



SIEGE OF CUAUTLA. 



155 



success in taking it inspired the royalist troops with contempt for the 
town of Cuautla and its defenders, and when the signal for the attack 
was given, they marched forward in four columns, confiding in their 
invincibility, and resolved to make short work of the fighting. The 
silence with which their approach was awaited, however, was omi- 
nous, and when Morelos, having suffered them to get within a hundred 
yards of his intrenchments in the plaza, opened a well-directed fire 
upon them, he threw them into confusion, and caused their speedy 
retreat. Calleja maintained the action from seven in the morning 
till three in the afternoon, when, after an unsuccessful attempt to 
draw the patriots forth by pretending to abandon his cannon, he re- 
tired to a town one league distant, leaving five hundred dead upon the 
field. He sent immediately to the capital for supplies of artillery, 
ammunition, and men. All that the magazines contained were fur- 
nished to him, and General Llano was ordered by the viceroy to join 
him with his whole force. Morelos, conscious that the eyes of all 
Mexico were turned to Cuautla, resolved to maintain it, though it 
was not at all defensible, according to the rules of warfare. He had 
a very small stock of provisions, and but little ammunition. The 
latter circumstance he remedied in part by economy in powder, and 
by buying from the people the balls, thrown into the town, at a fixed 
price per dozen ; but the want of food terminated the siege much 
sooner than it would have ended otherwise. Calleja continually 
bombarded him from one side, and Llano from the other ; yet his 
men defended themselves without a symptom of faltering, enduring 
every suffering, with the same undaunted resolution displayed by 
their officers. 

HE siege commmenced about the 1st of 
March, and at the end of April, all the ad- 
vantages that had been gained were on the 
side of the besieged. Famine, however, 
was making great havoc among them. Near- 
ly three hundred were sick in one hospital 
alone. A cat sold for six dollars, a lizard 
for two, and a dollar was cheerfully paid for a 
rat. A general action was brought on, one 
day, by a cow, which happened to stray into the space between the 
enemy's quarters and the town. The temptation to seize her was too 
great for the starving soldiers, and Morelos had great difficulty with 
nearly his whole remaining force in saving them from destruction. 

Morelos at last determined to evacuate the place, and the skill 
with which he did so was not surpassed by the bravery that had 
so long defended it. Every preparation was made beforehand. On 




156 



MEXICAN REVOLUTION. 




Leonardo Bravo. 



the night of the 2d of May, between eleven and twelve o'clock, the 
troops were formed in the plaza. Galeana took command of the 
advanced guard, Morelos the centre, and the Bravos of the rear. 
The column moved so noiselessly that they passed unperceived be- 
tween the enemy's batteries, and they were not discovered until they 
were putting together a bridge of hurdles, which the Indians had car- 
ried with them for the purpose of crossing a deep ravine that lay in 
the way. The ravine was hardly crossed when they were attacked 
on opposite sides by the troops of Llano and Calleja. Morelos 
immediately gave the signal for a general dispersion, which was so 
ably effected, that the Spanish troops fired for some time upon each 
other in mistake. Morelos marched to Izucar, then under Miguel 
Bravo, and here in two days he had the pleasure of being joined, ac- 
cording to agreement, by his dispersed soldiers. Only seventeen of 
all the garrison were missing. Among them, however, was Leonardo 
Bravo, who was taken by the enemy. His loss was deeply regretted. 
Calleja did not march into the town, till several hours after Mo- 
relos had left it ; and even then with ridiculous caution, for fear of 
some new stratagem. When he found the town abandoned to him, 
he exercised the most atrocious cruelties upon the unoffending inha- 
bitants. He returned to the capital on the 16th of May, giving a 
pompous account of his success, at which every one laughed. The 
popular appreciation of his success was well expressed by a character 
in a new comedy brought out at the time, at a theatre in the capi- 
tal. A soldier was introduced, who came before his general and pre 
sented him with a turban, saying, in a most pompous manner, " Here 
is the turban of the Moor, whom I took prisoner." "And the Moor 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 157 

himself?" " Unfortunately, sir, he escaped." The application was 
palpable, and the passage was received nightly with shouts of laughter. 

Thus ended the siege of Cuautla, the most important military occur- 
rence of the revolution. As soon as Morelos had recovered from the 
effects of a fall from his horse, on the night of the retreat, he recom- 
menced his career with more decided success than ever. He defeated 
three Spanish divisions, captured nine cannons, and an immense 
booty in Orizaba, stormed Oaxaca in the most daring and successful 
manner, and reduced Acapulco, after a siege of seven months, Au- 
gust, 1813. Meanwhile, he had summoned a meeting of a Mexican 
congress, which assembled at Chilpanzingo, in the province of Oaxaca, 
on the 13th of September, 1813. Its most remarkable act was the 
declaration of the absolute independence of Mexico. This seemed 
to be the culminating point of the glory of Morelos. " My race was 
run from the moment that I saw an independent government esta- 
blished," said he, at a later period, and the remark is borne out by 
the fact, that from that time commenced a series of reverses which 
only terminated with his life. 

His first defeat was occasioned by the valour of Iturbide, and the 
error of a large body of insurgent cavalry, who came upon the battle- 
field in the midst of a fight, and mistook their friends for their foes, 
causing irretrievable confusion. He was again defeated by Colonel 
Iturbide, at Puruaran, January 6, 1814. In this battle, his brave 
lieutenant, Matamoros, was taken prisoner and shot. The insurgents 
retaliated upon their prisoners. One after another of the conquests 
of the gallant general were retaken, and action after action was lost, 
his officers were taken by the enemy, and executed, and the congress- 
was driven from Chilpanzingo to the woods of Apatzingan, where, 
October 22, 1814, it adopted the constitution known by that name. 
Here, in the early part of the following year, Iturbide very nearly 
succeeded in surprising the congress, by a masterly forced march. 
With a view of placing it in safety, Morelos undertook to escort it to 
Tehuacan, in La Puebla, a march of sixty leagues, across a part of 
the country filled with royalist troops. He had only five hundred 
men under his command; but Teran commanded a large body of 
insurgents in La Puebla, and if he could join them, all might be well 
again. His despatches, however, were intercepted, and he was sur- 
prised, when he fancied himself beyond the reach of the enemy's 
lines, by two parties of royalists, who came upon him unperceived, 
in a mountainous part of the road. He took no measures to save 
himself. Don Nicolas Bravo was ordered to continue the march with 
the main body of the troops as an escort for the congress, while he 
endeavoured, with a few men, to check the advance of the Spaniards. 




158 



MEXICAN REVOLUTION. 




Death of Morelos. 



Most of his guard abandoned him when the action became hot ; yet 
his desire to gain time was gratified, for the royalists did not advance 
to seize him until one man only was left at his side. He was at first 
treated with great indignity, afterwards with more kindness, and 
finally shot, giving the signal himself, with the same composure he 
had ever evinced on the field of battle, December 22, 1815. The 
prayer he uttered, just before his execution, is laconic and extremely 
affecting. " Lord, if I have done well, thou knowest it ; if ill, to 
thy infinite mercy I commend my soul." 

His friend, Don Leonardo Bravo, had suffered the same fate in 
1814, an occurrence which caused the most noble exhibition of mag- 
nanimity known in Mexican history. The son of the condemned 
officer, Don Nicolas Bravo, gained the first victory of the Palmar, 
after a very severe three days' fight, August 20. He took on this 
occasion three hundred prisoners, whom he offered to the viceroy, 
Venegas, in exchange for his father. The offer was refused, and 
Leonardo Bravo was ordered to be immediately executed. It would 
have been in accordance with the spirit of the war to retaliate ; but 
Don Nicolas, as noble as he was brave, instantly set all his prisoners 
at liberty, " wishing," as he said, "to put it out of his own power to 
avenge on them the death of his parent, lest in the first moment of 
grief, the temptation should prove irresistible." 

Don Nicolas Bravo greatly added to his military reputation in the 
following campaign, by sustaining a siege for two months, on the 
Cerro of Coscomatepec, and a masterly retreat when provisions utterly 



APOD AC A APPOINTED VICEROY. 159 

failed him, without the loss of a man. During the same year, Octo- 
ber 18, 1813, Matamoros cut off the celebrated regiment of the 
Asturias, u the victors of the victors of Austerlitz," after a severe 
action of eight hours. But these successes weighed little against the 
current of disaster before noticed, and the active and enterprising 
Calleja, who had succeeded Venegas as viceroy, March 4, 1813, 
destroyed successively the armies of the insurgent chiefs. 

Teran dissolved the Congress, and thus destroyed the only bond 
of union that existed among them, other than their common devotion 
to the same cause. Notwithstanding all the advantages that had 
been gained in the field, however, little had been done by the vice- 
roy towards destroying the seeds of the rebellion. Cruel and blood- 
thirsty though Calleja was, he was nevertheless an able politician, 
and knew well the truth of what he said when he wrote to the king, 
that " as six millions of inhabitants, decided in the cause of inde- 
pendence, have no need of previous consultation, each one acts, ac- 
cording to his means and opportunities, in favour of the project 
common to all ; the judge, by concealing or conniving at crimes ; 
the clergy, by advocating the justice of the cause in the confessional, 
and even in the pulpit ; the writers, by corrupting public opinion ; 
the women, by employing their attractions in order to seduce the 
royal troops ; the government officer, by revealing, and thus para- 
lyzing, the plans of his superiors ; the youth, by taking arms ; the 
old man, by giving intelligence and forwarding correspondence ; and 
the public corporations, by setting an example of public differences 
with the Europeans, not one of whom they will admit as a colleague." 

The constitution adopted for Spain by the Cortes, in 1812, was 
also applied to Mexico and the other colonies. The legal restrictions 
upon the authority of the viceroy in this instrument were dispensed 
with ; and, backed by an imposing force, Calleja laboured zealously 
to restore quiet. When he was succeeded in the government, in 
1816, by Apodaca, the country was generally tranquil, and the new 
viceroy being a man of much more mildness of character, hoped to 
allay the whole disaffection. During the first two years of his rule, 
seventeen thousand of the insurgents accepted the indulto, or pardon 
offered by the king. Although the most important articles of the new 
constitution had been almost immediately suspended, it so far de- 
veloped the spirit of independence that nothing could afterwards 
shake its hold upon the minds of the people. Out of six hundred 
and fifty-two elective appointments for which it provided, not one 
was given to a European, and the greater part were filled by avowed 
republicans, who were best fitted to judge leniently of the guilt of 
their companions, should the latter be brought under their jurisdic- 



160 MEXICAN REVOLT. 




Min a. 



tion as alcaldes, for disloyalty. These were the officers to whom 
Calleja so bitterly alludes in the extract just quoted ; but his suc- 
cessor did not so well understand the deceitful character of the appa- 
rent calm. He saw the celebrated guerilla chief, Mina, land in the 
country with a respectable force, and summon others to his standard, 
but he found that the great mass of the people remained spectators 
of his movements. Mina enacted his part of soldier well, but the 
superior power of the viceroy soon crushed his opposition, destroyed 
his army, and captured him. He was tried, condemned, and exe- 
cuted on the 11th of November, 1817. Those who still held the 
strongholds he had captured were successively conquered, as well as 
the independent Mexican chiefs ; and in 1819, not one of all the 
insurgent leaders remained, except Guerrera, whose handful of wan- 
derers was hardly thought worth the trouble of capture. The vice- 
roy, therefore, wrote confidently to Spain that he would answer for 
the safety of Mexico without a single additional soldier being sent 
out, the province being again tranquil and perfectly submissive to 
the royal authority. 

Ere long he learned his error. Mina, not more skilful as a soldier 
than he was ignorant as a politician, was a royalist, convinced that 
the independent party could never succeed in Mexico, and therefore 
unable to act upon its adherents : he was a Spaniard, whose national 
feelings prevented him from fraternizing with the natives ; he com- 
mitted in the commencement of his career the fatal error of seizing 1 
the money and property of a Creole nobleman, who had taken no part 
in the war, and who was one of those for whose defence he professed 



CONSTITUTION RE-ESTABLISHED. 



161 




Iturbide. 



to have come. He had been expelled from Spain in consequence of 
an attempt to create an insurrection in favour of the Cortes, after the 
dissolution of that assembly by the king, and he came to Mexico to 
fight in the same cause, the constitutional freedom of the country 
under the Spanish king, which was not what the insurgents wanted. 
All the leaders of that party who united with him were men with 
whom it was a disgrace to be associated. 

During the war, the Creole troops had proved the main stay of the 
government, a circumstance the more remarkable as no Creole was 
allowed to hold any important command. The leisure of peace gave 
them an opportunity of thinking over their course, and they soon saw 
the great error they had committed. Crowds of insurgents, who had 
taken the benefit of the indulto, were allowed to mingle with their 
soldiers, and many of them were admitted into their ranks as recruits. 
These spread their opinions with zeal. They taught their new com- 
rades that it was to them the country had a right to look for freedom, 
while they alone had prevented its acquirement, and under a mis- 
taken notion of honour, committed an error which it was now their 
duty to repair. As these convictions began to influence the minds of 
the Creole soldiers, the constitution of 1812 was re-established in 
Spain, and of course in Mexico. The election returns in 1820 were 
of the same character as in 1812, and the partisans derived an addi- 
tional advantage from this change in the government, by the division 
among the Spaniards, some of whom were royalists of the old school, 
o2 21 



162 



MEXICAN REVOLUTION. 



and others sincerely attached to the constitution. The viceroy, 
Apodaca, took the oath to the constitution, at the same time intend- 
ing to overturn it, in alliance with the dignitaries of the church. 

Don Augustin de Iturbide was the person selected to carry this 
design into execution. He was of a respectable family of the province 
of Valladolid, serving as a lieutenant in a regiment of provincial mi- 
litia, at the commencement of the revolution. He was possessed of 
a fine person, captivating address, and polished manners, as well as 
a daring and ambitious spirit. He dipped early into the schemes of 
the insurgents, who would gladly have received him into their ranks 
had he not rated his services far above what they conceived them 
to be worth. He was young, and inexperienced then, and their re- 
fusal to accede to his terms determined him to embrace the cause 
of the government, for which, as we have seen, he fought with 
bravery, activity, and almost uniform success. He stained his vic- 
tories by the most unlicensed severities. After a victory at Salva- 
tierra, for instance, he writes to the viceroy on Good Friday, 1814, 
that in honour of the day, he had just ordered three hundred ex- 
communicated wretches to be shot. He was further charged with 
rapacity and extortions in his government, a fault shared, however, 
by all his fellow officers. 

N 1820, he was despatched by Apodaca to 
take command of a small body of troops on 
the western coast, at the head of which he 
was to proclaim the re-establishment of ab- 
solute royal authority. He accepted the com- 
mission, and proceeded at once to execute a 
plan of his own for bringing the Creole troops 
to unite with the insurgents and shake off the 
Spanish yoke altogether. At the head of 
eight hundred men he proclaimed the famous 
Plan of Iguala, February 24th, 1821, at the 
town of that name, on the road from Mexico 
to Acapulco. It was intended to conciliate 
all parties. The independence of Mexico 
was to be established, and its union with 
Spain preserved by vesting the right to the 
crown in the king of Spain or one of his brothers. Spaniards werp 
put upon the same footing with the Creoles, and an end put to the 
despotism of military commandants. He proposed three great ob- 
jects to be kept in view, which he called "the three Guarantees," 
and his army was denominated " the army of the three Guarantees." 
These guarantees were independence, the maintenance of the Ca- 




INFLUENCE OF ITURBIDE. 163 




Novella. 

tholic religion, and union. The viceroy might have speedily over- 
turned the little army of the three guarantees, but he seemed so sur- 
prised at the course taken by his subordinate, that he hesitated to 
put himself at the head of the troops of the capital until the Euro- 
peans became alarmed and deposed him. They elected in his place 
Don Francisco Novella, but his authority was not generally recog- 
nized, and Iturbide profited by the schism in the capital to consum- 
mate his plans in the interior. In the first place he seized a conducta 
with a million of dollars. Guerrera was then induced to join him in 
the new war for "independence." Insurgents and Creoles joined 
together under his authority, the clergy openly espoused his cause, 
and protestations of good will from the most distant provinces poured 
in upon him. Before November, the whole country acknowledged 
his authority, except the capital in which Novella had shut himself 
up with the Spanish troops. Iturbide was about to invest it, when he 
heard of the landing at Vera Cruz, of Don Juan O'Donoju, the 
new constitutional viceroy and political chief, whom Iturbide hastened 
to meet at Cordova, and adopted with him by treaty, the Plan of 
Iguala, as the only means of securing the lives and property of the 
Spaniards in Mexico, and the right to the throne to the house of 
Bourbon. Novella left the country with those who chose to follow 
him, and O'Donoju remained there as a member of the junta, which 
was to exercise the supreme authority until the king's decision, with 
regard to the treaty, should be known. This junta chose a regency 
of five individuals, of which Iturbide was made president. He was 
at the same time created generalissimo, and lord high admiral, with 
a yearly salary of a hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The first 



164 



MEXICAN REVOLUTION. 



Mexican Cortes assembled on the 24th of February, 1822, and the 
fall of Iturbide commenced. Hitherto he had carried the nation 
along with him, but as soon as the future organization of the govern- 
ment came under discussion, the unanimity was at an end. There 
were three parties, the adherents of the house of Bourbon, the repub- 
licans, and the Iturbidists. The news soon came of the rejection of 
the treaty of Cordova, by the king of Spain, and the Bourbon party 
died away. The Iturbidists immediately raised their favourite to the 
throne. He was crowned emperor of Mexico, under the title of Au- 
gustin I. on the 18th of May', 1822. This only delayed his fall. 
The congress recognized him, but began to quarrel with him, and 
after trying in vain to establish a despotic authority over them, he 
boldly dissolved the assembly, October 30, 1822, and formed a new 
legislative assembly, composed of his creatures. But he was not 
able to reconcile his companions in arms to these changes, and seve- 
ral generals pronounced against him, and prepared for a contest. He 
found the storm likely to prove too severe for resistance, and he there- 
fore called together the old congress, and abdicated in March, 1823. 
They refused to accept his abdication, as that would imply his having 
had a right to the crown, but they allowed him to leave the country 
with his family, and allowed him a yearly income of twenty-five 
thousand dollars for his support. 

A new executive was immediately appointed by the congress, com- 
posed of Generals Victoria, Bravo, and Negrete, by whom the affairs 
of the country were conducted until the assembling of a new con- 
gress, in August, 1823, which definitely sanctioned a federal consti- 
tution in October, 1824. The revolution was ended. 





General Bustamente. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



HISTORY OF THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC. 



ENERAL VICTORIA was the 

first president of the republic, 
and during the first monthis 
of his administration the par- 
ties of the nation were occu 
pied in forming themselves. Pronuii' 
ciamientos were very frequent, but they 
gave little alarm to the government, 
which proceeded steadily in a manner 
gratifying to the republicans. At length 
two parties became well defined, one 
opposed to republicanism, the other strongly in favour of it. The 
first was known by the name of the Escoceses, or Scotch party ; the 
other by that of Yorkinos, or York party. In December, 1827, 

(165) 




166 MEXICAN REPUBLIC. 




Pedraza. 

General Bravo rose against the government, at the head of the Scotch 
party, but the president defeated and captured him, and his eminent 
services in the revolution alone saved his life ; as it was, he was 
banished. In the election which soon followed, however, the Scotch 
faction elected their candidate, Gomez Pedraza, by a majority of two 
votes, but the republicans could not submit to their defeat, and Santa 
Anna marched against the new president, even before he was inaugu- 
rated. On the 4th of December, 1828, a pronunciamento was issued in 
favour of Guerrero, the president's political opponent. Pedraza fled 
to the United States, and congress elevated Guerrero and Busta- 
mente to the offices of president and vice-president. The new go- 
vernment was immediately overturned by the latter, who induced 
Santa Anna to join him, overthrew Guerrero, and seized the govern- 
ment. The brave Guerrero, who had maintained the cause of Mexi- 
can liberty when every other champion had been slain or subdued, 
and whose virtues merited the lasting gratitude of his countrymen, 
was now rewarded by being executed, in 1831. In the following year, 
Santa Anna took up arms against Bustamente, and forced him to 
permit the recall of Pedraza, who returned from exile, resumed his 
office, and served out the remainder of it. When his term expired, 
in May, 1833, Santa Anna was elected to succeed him. 

The energy of character and military skill of Santa Anna were well 
known, and dreaded by his rivals, yet this did not prevent them from 
perpetual disturbances. He kept them down with a strong hand, 
however, always marching to certain victory at the head of his idol- 
izing soldiers. In 1833 the people of Texas applied for admission 
into the Mexican Union as a separate state, but their commissioner, 



MILITARY DESPOTISM. 167 

Stephen Austin, was detained at the capital, waiting in vain for an 
answer. At length he wrote home, advising the people of Texas to 
erect their province into a state without waiting for further consent. 
His letter was intercepted, and he was seized as he was travelling 
homeward, and thrown into a dungeon. For nine months he did 
not know the cause of his imprisonment. He was not released until 
a year had elapsed from the time of his arrest. During the early part 
of 1834, the president and the congress worked harmoniously toge- 
ther; but Santa Anna had abandoned his republican principles since 
his accession to office, and was now anxious to centralize the power 
of the state, with himself at the head of it. He corrupted the con- 
gress, and then abolished it, taking the supreme power into his own 
hands, and with the army crushing all attempts at resistance. The 
plan of Toluca was at length published, by a new congress, in the 
interest of Santa Anna, which reduced the country to a military 
despotism, with himself at its head. In the northern departments, 
however, the federalists maintained a stand against these arbitrary 
proceedings, and a force was sent to put them down. General Cos 
entered Texas in September, 1835, at the head of a strong force, and 
prepared to enforce the requisitions of the government. A battle was 
fought on the banks of the Rio Guadalupe, in which a part of his 
force was defeated. In October, the Texans captured the fortress of 
Goliad, with a large quantity of arms and military stores. In the 
latter end of October, the Texans, under General Austin, laid siege to 
the strong town of Bexar. During the siege, Colonels Fannin and 
Bowie, with ninety-two men, gained a brilliant victory over a body 
of four hundred Mexicans, and on the 8th of November another vic- 
tory was obtained over a party of the besieged, who henceforth kept 
themselves closely in the town. General Austin was without cannon 
suitable for the reduction of so large a city, but he stormed it on the 
5th of December. General Cos retired with the garrison into the 
fortress of the Alamo, and kept up a constant fire upon the town, but 
he was obliged at length to capitulate 

The defeat of General Cos hastened the preparations of Santa 
Anna to add to his glory by reducing the rebellious Texans. He 
entered that state with an army of ten thousand men, and a large 
train of artillery, and reached the town of Bexar on the 21st ol 
February. The Texan garrison had no intimation of his approach, 
and they were driven into the Alamo without provisions. They re- 
ceived no other aid, during the siege which followed, than a rein- 
forcement of thirty-two men from Gonzales. They numbered with 
these a hundred and fifty. For ten days the air was darkened by the 
shot and shells poured into the fort by Santa Anna, yet not a man of 



168 



MEXICAN REPUBLIC. 




Fall of the Alamo. 



the Texans had fallen, while the ground was strewed with hundreds 
of their enemies, slain by the ball of the unerring rifle. At length, 
on the night of the 5th of March, they beheld the enemy advancing 
to assault the place. With their artillery the gallant defenders beat 
whole battalions to the earth, yet the Mexican pushed on his men, 
confident of ultimate success. The scaling-ladders were at length 
planted, and the Mexicans poured into the fortress. The men of 
the garrison, looking more like spectres than men, still dealt death 
upon the enemy. They sold their lives dearly, but the immense 
numbers of their assailants made their destruction certain. Seven 
of them, finding their companions all dead, asked for quarter, but 
were refused. They retired to a corner of the fortress, placed 
their backs to the walls, and fell, each upon a pile of his fallen 
foes. Such was the victory of the Alamo, the Thermopylae of Texas, 
which cost the victor fifteen hundred of his bravest men. He now 
attempted to reduce the Texans by negotiation, but his overtures 
were disdainfully rejected. 

In March, Colonel Fannin, with three hundred men, was sur- 
rounded on an open plain by a great number of the enemy, to whom 
he surrendered, after a short conflict, on condition of being well 
treated, and sent to the United States as soon as transportation could 
be procured. A party of a hundred men, coming to his aid, was 



BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO. 169 




General Cos. 

also captured, and the whole four hundred were marched to Goliad, 
where, after enduring every insult and indignity, Santa Anna caused 
them to be massacred in cold blood. 

On the 2d of March, 1836, the representatives of the people of 
Texas assembled at Washington, and declared their state independ- 
ent. The invading army was now marching in three divisions 
through the country, the second, under Santa Anna, being in the 
centre. General Houston, after retreating before one party of the 
foe, made a forced march to encounter Santa Anna. On the 20th of 
April, he bivouacked on the San Jacinto, and his troops, who had 
eaten nothing for forty-eight hours, began to prepare some cattle for 
a meal, when the advance of Santa Anna's party came up. A skir- 
mish immediately took place, in which the too fiery Texans were 
driven back, and the troops of Santa Anna, already believing them- 
selves invincible, were assured of further glory to be gained by them 
on the morrow. General Cos joined his commander, with the rear- 
guard, making his force up to fifteen hundred men, and on the after- 
noon of the 21st, the battle was fought. Houston had seven hundred 
infantry and sixty-one cavalry. The Texan infantry charged the line 
of the enemy till within a few yards, when they delivered their fire 
with dreadful effect, shouted their "war cry, " Remember the Alamo," 
and rushed upon the foe with the bayonet. The battle was decided 
at once. The Mexicans lost six hundred and thirty killed, two hun- 
dred and eighty wounded, and seven hundred and thirty prisoners. 
Almonte was captured on the day of the battle, Santa Anna on the 
22d, and General Cos on the 24th. Santa Anna now offered his 
services to put an end to the war; and, as president of Mexico, 
signed a treaty on the 14th of May, 1836, binding himself solemnly to 
P 22 



170 MEXICAN REPUBLIC. 

acknowledge, sanction, and ratify the full, entire, and perfect inde- 
pendence of Texas. The Rio Grande was, by this treaty, defined to 
be the western boundary of the new republic. The Texans agreed 
to spare the lives of their captives, to send Santa Anna to Vera Cruz 
as soon as possible, and to furnish General Filisola with supplies, on 
his retreat out of the country. Afterwards Santa Anna was placed 
on board a vessel at Velasco, and hoped to be allowed to sail to Vera 
Cruz, but he was disappointed, as General Green arrived off the 
Brazos with a detachment of newly enlisted troops, and the captive 
general was obliged to come on shore and exhibit himself. He was 
sent to the United States in December, 1836, and visited the presi- 
dent. The United States brig Pioneer conveyed him to Mexico in 1837. 

Santa Anna returned to Mexico in 1837, and retired into solitude 
at his hacienda of Magno de Clava. The vice-president, Barragan, 
had endeavoured to act upon his principles during his absence, but 
the policy of Santa Anna could only be upheld by his own hands ; 
the innumerable federalists were spreading disorder and confusion 
from one end of the country to the other, while from without, 
France was clamorous for the payment of a long-standing debt, and 
the treasury was empty. Bustamente took advantage of these diffi- 
culties to return to Mexico, and place himself at the head of the 
government. He announced his intention to continue the war against 
Texas, and sent General Bravo to Saltillo, to take command of an 
expedition into that country. A few ragged undisciplined soldiers 
were collected at that place for the purpose, and detained there 
without supplies or munitions. Bravo resigned in disgust. 

Bustamente soon became unpopular, and was labouring zealously 
to avert the approaching financial crisis, when a French fleet under 
Admiral Baudin, came to Vera Cruz to obtain redress. The admiral 
would have nothing to do with diplomacy. He blockaded the port 
of Vera Cruz, and cut off the revenue derived from that city by the 
government, maintaining his position during the whole winter of 
1838-9. Santa Anna had been, in 1838, intrusted by the govern- 
ment with the command of an army against Mexia, who had pro- 
nounced against the central government. He had defeated Mexia, 
taken him prisoner, and put him to death on the spot. We can find 
little fault with his conduct on this occasion, for the defeated officer 
himself said, when the sentence was announced to him, with admi- 
rable sangfroid, " Santa Anna is right. I should have treated him 
so, had I been the conqueror." 

Santa Anna was now called to the defence of Vera Cruz, where 
the French admiral had become weary of maintaining the blockade. 
He resolved to make an attack on the fortress. A bombardment was 



VERA CRUZ ATTACKED BY THE FRENCH. 171 




commenced by the whole force, which the Mexicans, with the utmost 
indifference, suffered to be towed slowly into position without firing 
a shot. They did not waken from their apathy until they found their 
castle walls less invulnerable than they had supposed. When they 
did return the fire, however, their powder was so bad that it would 
not send a ball through the side of a ship, and thus the effect of their 
excellent gunnery was lost. The inferior quality of the powder, 
however, did not prevent it from making a terrible havoc among 
the defenders themselves. A magazine exploded, blowing up the 
Tower of the Cavalier, and dealing death and destruction in all direc- 
tions, and placing the garrison hors du combat. The firing ceased. 

The French then attacked the city. Several engagements took 
place between them and the forces of Santa Anna, in one of which 
that general received a wound which cost him his leg. An arrange- 
ment was effected with the French, who left the harbour in peace, 
and Santa Anna, yielding up his authority, retired to his hacienda, 
to recover from the amputation of his limb, followed by the confidence 
and esteem of his countrymen, who he felt assured would soon call 
him to the head of the government. 

In 1839 General Canales excited a revolt in the northern pro- 
vinces, which he endeavoured to unite into a separate republic, with 
the aid of Texas. The revolutionists declared their independence, 
and chose Canales general-in-chief and president. A volunteer force 
was raised at Bexar, and marched to join the federal army, under 
Colonel Jordan. Canales then entered Mexico, and marched to 
Coahuila. General Arista was sent against him. The superior merit 
of Canales, as a Mexican officer, consists in the facility with which he 



172 MEXICAN REPUBLIC. 




Santiago Iman. 

can change his side in a contest. He suffered himself to be defeated 
by Arista, in 1840, and then made his peace with the Mexicans, leav- 
ing the brave Jordan to fight his way back to Antonio de Bexar, at 
the head of his little band of Texans. 

At the end of May, 1839, Santiago Iman, a militia officer of Yuca- 
tan, raised the standard of revolt in that state. His measures had 
been concerted with the commander of a garrison of Mexicans in 
Espeta, and he marched to that place to join his confederate. The 
commander of Espeta meanwhile changed his mind, and instead of 
giving up the place to Iman, he opened a fire upon him. It was in 
the night, and a battle ensued, in which Iman was worsted and com- 
pelled to retire. He was pursued, after some time, by the com- 
mander, and made to leave his encampment. His opponent then 
returned to Espeta, boasting that he had subdued the rebellion. 
Santiago Iman, however, was a man of considerable ability and 
political skill, and he remained in arms, and increased his numbers. 
On the 12th of December, he was attacked by General Requena, and 
defended himself until fifty of the government troops were killed and 
many wounded. He was driven from the place at the point of the 
bayonet, but his loss was very slight, and while Requena returned to 
report to his superior in Campeachy that he had given the rebel force 
to the winds, the hardy partisan prepared for an enterprise of some 
magnitude. On the 11th of February, 1840, he appeared before 
Valladolid de Yucatan, entered the suburbs, and gained a battle over 
the garrison, whose brave commander was killed in the fight. The 
victorious army was composed of the able general and a handful of 



SANTA FE EXPEDITION. 173 




General Rivas. 

Indians and Meztizoes gathered from the huts of the country, and a 
few deserters from the regular army. 

A convention met at Iman's command, on the same night, and 
proclaimed the constitution of 1824. The news spread rapidly over 
the country, the people every where espoused the cause of the in- 
surgents, and in a short time Campeachy was the only city that 
retained its allegiance to the central government. General Rivas 
commanded the city, with a garrison of a thousand men, but the 
revolutionists compelled him to surrender in June 1840, and the 
struggle was brought to an end. In March, 1841, a new constitu- 
tion was proclaimed. 

These difficulties hastened the fall of Bustamente. Paredes pro- 
nounced against him in 1841, and the movement becoming popular, 
Santa Anna joined in it. The latter officer had already corrupted 
several of the officers of Bustamente, and with their support he had 
little difficulty in expelling the president, and seating himself in the 
executive chair. The position of Santa Anna was one of the greatest 
difficulty, and his conduct in extricating the government from its em- 
barrassments, prove him to be as able as he is crafty and unprincipled 

In 1841 a party of Texans invaded Santa Fe, were taken prisoners, 
and marched to the Mexican capital, under the most horrid sufferings 
from small pox, want, and the cruel treatment of the Mexicans, who 
slaughtered many of them in cold blood. One of the officers escort- 
ing them slew several, because they could not keep up, and carried 
their ears, strung together upon a piece of buckskin, to the governor 
of the next department, to prove that he had not allowed them to 
p2 



174 



MEXICAN REPUBLIC. 




Pared es. 



escape. At Mexico they were confined in the convent of Santiago, 
loaded with chains, and compelled to labour on the public works. 
The few who remained alive in June, 1842, were liberated by 
Santa Anna. Yucatan and Texas entered into a convention to sup- 
port each other, and the Texan navy, under Commodore Moore, 
cleared the gulf of the Mexican flag. In 1842, General Morelos 
marched four thousand men into Yucatan, where the fever broke out 
in his camp, and in a few weeks he returned to Vera Cruz with a mere 
handful of men. Hundreds had perished in a single day. The ex- 
pedition cost too much to be repeated, and the Yucatecos remained 
unmolested. They subsequently re-entered the Mexican confederacy 
on their own terms, and still pay a nominal allegiance to the republic. 
Six years after the battle of San Jacinto, during which Texas had 
been making the most rapid improvements, she was suddenly in- 
vaded by General Bascus, who surprised San Antonio de Bexar, 
pillaged the town, and retired with his booty with Mexican celerity. 
General Canales soon after came with a strong party of cavalry and 
infantry, upon a similar expedition, but he was met by a party of 
Texans and defeated with loss. In September, General Woll came 
with a thousand men and captured Bexar. He remained there nearly 
a week. A party of Texans marched to the relief of the town, under 
Colonel Caldwell, and Captain Dawson came with another company 



BATTLE OF MIER. 175 

to join Caldwell. Dawson was surrounded by the enemy, and a 
battle ensued, in which the Texans fought like tigers. The right 
ended when they were all killed or disabled, and General Woll, who 
had suffered severely in the engagement, made a hasty retreat into 
Mexico, carrying with him fifty-two prisoners. The president of 
Texas sent a body of eight hundred cavalry to the Rio Grande, to 
retaliate, but the leader, General Somerville, did not effect any thing, 
and determined to return. With the chivalrous feelings so prevalent 
in the south-west, the men of the party disliked to return without 
having accomplished any thing, and three hundred of them elected 
Colonel Fisher as a leader, and marched onward. They captured 
the town of Mier, and demanded from the alcalde a supply of 
horses and provisions. These he promised to furnish, and they en- 
camped outside the town to await the fulfilment of his engagement. 
Meanwhile General Ampudia marched to the relief of Mier, with 
more than three thousand men, and the main body of the Texans, 
who were in a destitute condition, actually forced their way back 
into the heart of the town, in the face of a heavy fire from the artil- 
lery and musketry of Ampudia. They were attacked on the following 
morning by the whole force of the enemy, and one of the most desperate 
battles of America followed. The rifles of the Texans were discharged 
rapidly and fatally, and death gathered victims from every housetop, 
and in every street where the Mexicans showed themselves. The 
final issue of the conflict might have been in favour of the gallant 
Texans, but their supply of ammunition became exhausted, and they 
very reluctantly accepted the terms offered by Ampudia. He broke 
them as soon as his enemy was in his power, and marched the pri- 
soners off to Mexico, to undergo the same sufferings as their unfor- 
tunate countrymen, who were taken in the Santa Fe expedition. Re- 
volting against the barbarity of their tormentors, the prisoners rose 
on their guard and escaped ; but they could not find their way out of 
the country, and were retaken. Seventeen of their number were 
put to death as a punishment for the attempted escape. Many an 
arm has been nerved to high deeds of chivalry in the contest betwetn 
the United States and Mexico, by the thought of the sufferings expe- 
lienced at the hands of the treacherous Mexicans, by Americans, on 
these fatal expeditions. 

Santa Anna finding that the people began to look for some more 
decisive movements on his part, in fulfilment of the great promises 
he had made with regard to Texas, attempted to amuse them, and 
the Texans too, by accepting the offers of the British minister as me- 
diator, and a negotiation was entered into, between the two states, 
which proceeded slowly, and finally broke up without settling any 



176 



MEXICAN REPUBLIC. 




Santa Anna. 



point in dispute. The principal articles insisted on by the Mexicans 
was, that Texas should not form a connection with the United States, 
which many of the people of Texas and the United States, were be- 
ginning to look upon favourably. This measure increased in public 
favour, and was finally consummated on the 1st of March, 1845, by 
the passage of joint resolutions for that pupose by the American 
congress, as hereafter related. 

The internal affairs of Mexico meanwhile had undergone material 
changes. A junta of notables was convened by Santa Anna, in 
1842, to form a new constitution, and on the 13th of June, 1843, it 
proclaimed the result of its deliberations, in the shape of the " Bases 
of Political Organization of the Mexican Republic." Under this 
new constitution, Santa Anna was elected the first president. 

In 1843, General Santmanet attempted a revolution in Tabaseo, 
which proved unsuccessful, and he fled to Havana, where he col- 
lected a party of adventurers and returned to Mexico, in 1844. He 
was shipwrecked on the bar of the Rio Tabasco, and he and his 
Darty fell into the hands of General Ampudia, who cut off his head, 
boiled it in oil, and stuck it up on a pole to blacken in the sun. 

A hostile movement of the president against Paredes, however, 
caused the friends of that general to prepare for revolt, and a civil 



SANTA ANNA MADE DICTATOR. 



177 




Santmanet. 

war soon broke out. Santa Anna marched at the head of the array to 
quell the insurrection, but his soldiers ran away, and he was obliged 
to deliver himself a prisoner, into the hands of his enemies. His 
lieutenant, Canalizo, surrendered the capital, and General Herrera 
was elevated to the presidency. Santa Anna was for a time im- 
prisoned in Perote Castle ; but after long deliberation, the congress 
condemned him to perpetual exile. He embarked in June, 1845, 
for Havana, with his wife and a few friends, and occupied himself 
with puerile pursuits, until August, 1846, when he terminated his 
perpetual exile, by landing at Vera Cruz, and becoming at once pre- 
sident and dictator. Herrera had caused the passage of a vote by 
the congress, recognizing the independence of Texas, on condition 
of her not annexing herself to the United States, which was an un- 
popular measure, and Paredes took advantage of it to unseat Her- 
rera. He became president himself, and soon after involved his 
country in war with the United States. His ill fortune in that war, 
of course caused his fall, and the elevation of Santa Anna. 




23 




CHAPTER IX. 



CAUSES OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 



HE same causes which produced 
the revolution in Texas, and 
which carried her triumphantly 
through its checkered events, 
_ induced her people to regard 
the United States with admi- 
ration and gratitude. Most of 
the Texan colonists had once 
been citizens of the Union ; 
they had grown up with her 
growth, and rejoiced in her 
prosperity ; when a worse than 
savage warfare had desolated 
their borders, her sons had been the first to rush to their assistance ; 
it was her army, her soldiers, her skill, that had routed Santa Anna 
at San Jacinto, and throughout the whole struggle, the consciousness 
that a superior power was sympathizing with them, had nerved their 
people to action. These were the grounds for that high respect 
evinced by the Texans towards the United States. They made her 
proud of her origin, of her struggle, and of her geographical posi- 
178 




TEXAN SETTLERS. 179 

lion near such an ally, and induced her, as we have seen, to model 
her national constitution after that of her foster parent. 

With these feelings of regard for the United States, were mingled 
others little less powerful. Mexico had not yet consented to the par- 
tition of her ancient empire ; she had denounced the forced agree- 
ment with Santa Anna, and declared her determination never to 
assent to Texan independence. At that time, this determination 
seemed but the effect of the impotent ravings consequent on mor- 
tified pride ; but it was by no means improbable that a time might 
come, when, having suppressed internal faction, she would pour down 
her concentrated legions upon the thinly peopled villages of Texas, 
and desolate whole provinces. Even should this not happen, the 
system of petty warfare perpetually maintained along the borders, 
prevented all repose and security. Texas began to feel herself in- 
adequate to the harassing struggle, which rendered formidable even 
the weakness of her obstinate foe. Her only resource was the esta- 
blishment of such a relation with the United States as would awe 
Mexico, and secure to herself safety and respectability, both at home 
and abroad. 

But, in addition to all this, there was another reason why Texas 
leaned toward the northern republic with a feeling of weakness and 
dependence. The original settlers of the country had been mostly 
daring adventurers, bred amid the wild scenes of western life, and 
dependent on the rifle for their very subsistence. The trapper, the 
buffalo hunter, the restless, roving, backwoodsman, who, like the 
Indian, moved westward as civilization encroached on his solitudes 
— these were the fathers of the Texan revolution. In battle, and 
among the denizens of the forest, they were irresistible ; but to meet 
in organized convention to form laws for a new nation, and to go 
through the drudgery necessary to the first exercise of such laws, 
were labours utterly above their abilities. With some few allow- 
ances for manner of life, they could accommodate themselves to al- 
most any old government ; but to originate a new one, or to execute 
it after its origination, was the point at which they failed. Unlike 
the people of the Thirteen Colonies, they had never made govern- 
ment and the rights of man, both natural and acquired, their study. 

It was in view of all these circumstances, that Texas, at a very 
early period of her struggle, expressed a desire to be united as a 
state to the American Union. She had apparently battled, not so 
much for absolute independence, as for emancipation from Mexican 
tyranny ; and in order to secure this object, she laid less stress on 
national sovereignty, than upon a state of dependence which would 
insure her safety. This disposition seems a little strange. Most 



180 



CAUSES OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 



nations, however small, vaunt themselves in their independence of 
foreign control, especially if that independence has been achieved 
by their own efforts. The reasons given are, however, the solution ; 
the burden of self-government was too great for a young and irregu- 
larly settled country. 

On the 4th of August, 1837, the government of Texas made a 
proposition to the American Union to be admitted as a state. Mr. 
Van Buren was then president. After mature deliberation, he re- 
fused to receive the proposition, since, as he alleged, it would vio- 
late the treaty of amity between Mexico and our government, and 
by espousing the Texan quarrel, involve two friendly nations in un- 
necessary war. The offer was not pressed, and Texas still remained 
exposed to the desultory attacks of small parties from Mexico. Nego- 
tiations for loans and troops were, however, carried on with the 
United States, and also with Europe. No definite interference was 
made by any of the powers who were applied to. 

R. VAN BUREN'S administration ter- 
minated while affairs were in this po- 
sition. Mr. Tyler soon after assumed 
the executive chair. The subject of 
Texan annexation seems to have early 
engrossed his attention, although it 
was strenuously opposed by the party 
which had elevated him to power, as 
well as by a large portion of their po- 
litical opponents. On the 6th of Oc- 
tober, 1843, Mr. Upshur, secretary of 
state, intimated to the Texan minister 
that proposals of annexation would no* 
be unfavourably received, and recom- 
mended a renewal of efforts for that purpose. This was communi- 
cated to the president of Texas, who immediately closed with the 
proposal. 

These movements of Mr. Tyler attracted the notice of both the 
political parties in the Union, and drew out the opinions of leading 
men, and the criticisms of the press. The Whig party in general 
showed themselves utterly averse to the measure ; but with their an- 
tagonists the scheme daily gained ground. It soon became one of 
the great topics of discussion ; and in proportion as the official term of 
the president drew near its close, it was more and more evident that 
annexation would be one of the rallying points on which, during the 
national election, the opposing masses would test their strength. At 
the same time, Mexico was not idle. She had watched the dan- 




BOCANEGRA'S LETTER TO THOMPSON. 



181 




Bocanegra. 



gerous movement from its origin, and the fear of losing a large por- 
tion of her territory, roused her to exertions greater than any she had 
put forth since her revolution. As Mr. Van Buren had predicted, 
she declared that the act would be a violation of the treaty between 
the two nations, the forerunner and signal for war, and an infringe- 
ment of the law of nations. She declared her determination never 
to yield Texas, while it received assistance from a foreign power ; 
and denounced the Texans as a band of outlaws, incapable of govern- 
ing themselves, and driven by the fear of anarchy, to beg a union 
with some stronger nation. "If a party in Texas is now endeavour- 
ing to effect its incorporation with the United States, it is from a 
consciousness of their notorious incapability to form and constitute an 
independent nation, without their having changed their situation, or 
acquired any right to separate themselves from their mother country. 
His Excellency, the provisional president, resting on this deep con- 
viction, is obliged to prevent an aggression, unprecedented in the 
annals of the world, from being consummated ; and if it is indispen- 
sable for the Mexican nation to seek security for its rights at the 
expense of the disasters of war, it will call upon God, and rely on 
its own efforts for the defence of its just cause." Such was the 
language addressed by Mr. Bocanegra, the Mexican minister of 
foreign relations, to Waddy Thompson, American minister in Mexico. 
The note was dated August 23, 1843. 

Notwithstanding this express declaration of anticipated war, neither 
Texas or the United States relaxed their efforts, to effect a treaty of 
annexation. The protest of Mr. Bocanegra was but slightly noticed, 
and the newspapers and leading statesmen favourable to the measure, 

Q 



182 



CAUSES OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 



exerted every effort to have it consummated. Political meetings 
echoed warm responses to the desire of the Texans ; and amid the 
stars which decorated the national colours, was hung another — the 
"one lone star" — to complete the sovereignty of American empire. 
Alarmed by these demonstrations, Mexico repeated, through General 
Almonte, minister at Washington, her remonstrances and threats of 
war. " If," says that officer, in a note to Mr. Upshur, [November 
3, 1843,] " contrary to the hopes and wishes entertained by the 
government of the undersigned, for the preservation of the good 
understanding and harmony which should reign between the two 
neighbouring and friendly republics, the United States should in de- 
fiance of good faith, and the principles of justice, which they have 
constantly proclaimed, commit the unheard of act of violence of ap- 
propriating to themselves an integral part of the Mexican territory, 
the undersigned, in the name of his nation, and now for them protests 
in the most solemn manner against such an aggression ; and he more- 
over declares, by express order of his government, that on sanction 
being given by the executive of the Union to the incorporation of 
Texas into the United States, he will consider his mission ended, 
seeing that, as the secretary of state will have learned, the Mexican 
government is resolved to declare war as soon as it receives intima- 
tion of such an act." 

Such was the position of the Texas annexation question, when, on 
the 28th of February, 1844, Mr. Upshur, American secretary of 
state was killed by an explosion on board of the steamer Princeton. 
He was succeeded by Hon. John C. Calhoun, with whom annexation 
was a favourite project. It was accordingly carried forward so 
vigorously by that active statesman. 

R. CALHOUN, on the 12th of April, 
1844, with Messrs. Van Zandt and 
Henderson, ministers plenipotentiary 
of Texas, signed a treaty constituting 
Texas a part of the American Union. 
Mr. Tyler submitted this instrument 
to the Senate, April 22, 1844, and on 
the 8th of June that body, by a vote 
of thirty-five to sixteen, rejected it. 
A respite was thus allowed for a 
more ample consideration of the 
subject; and during this interval, 
Mexico exerted all her influence to 
defeat the measure, should it again 
be brought before the American people. 




ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 



iS3 



At the presidential election in November, 1844, the annexation 
of Texas was made the great question round which the Democratic 
party rallied. Mr. Polk, their candidate, was elected ; and this 
being construed by President Tyler as a proof of the measure 
being acceptable to a majority of the people, he directed all 
his efforts to effect another treaty before the termination of his 
official term. He succeeded. On the 1st of March, 1845, Congress 
passed the joint resolution, providing that the territory " rightfully 
belonging to the republic of Texas, should form part of the Ameri- 
can Union on condition that the latter government should settle all 
questions of boundary that may arise with other governments." 

R. TYLER, as president, signed the 
document on the same day, and on the 
4th of July it was ratified by the Texan 
Convention. The act thus consum- 
mated, was by far the most important 
of Mr. Tyler's administration. 

It will be observed, that the terms 
of the joint resolution 1 assigned to the 
United States the almost hopeless task 
of settling the boundary between Texas 
and Mexico, at a time when the latter 
power had solemnly declared war to be 
a consequence of the adoption of the 
joint resolution. The question of dis- 
puted boundary is always a vexed one ; but under the above circum- 
stances, its troubles and aggravation promised to be endless. The 
Texans claimed the whole country east of the Rio Grande. Santa 
Anna, while a prisoner in the United States, thus defined the bound- 
ary : " Beginning," he says, " at the mouth of the Rio Grande, thence 
up the principal stream of said river to its source ; thence due north 
to the 42d° of north latitude ; thence along the boundary line as de- 
fined in the treaty between the United States and Spain (February, 
1819,) to the beginning." The Americans rested a claim on the 
latter treaty. But this seems inadmissible, inasmuch as Santa Anna 
was then a captive, evidently acting against his intentions, and in 
addition to which, the Mexican government refused to sanction his 
act, which sanction the instrument required previous to becoming an 
international law. Thus the question of boundary being left open, 
afforded opportunities which have since been improved, of fomenting 
the unhappy rupture between two sister republics, and rendering still 
more exasperated the feelings which have ever been entertained be- 
tween them concerning Texas. 




184 



CAUSES OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 



Although the annexation of Texas had been expected by Mexico, 
yet the blow seems to have been unexpected. On the 6th of 
March, 1845, only a few days after the ratification of the joint reso- 
lution, the minister at Washington denounced it as u an act of aggres- 
sion the most unjust which can be found recorded in the annals of 
modern history — namely, that of despoiling a friendly nation like 
Mexico, of a considerable portion of her territory." At the same 
time he declared his mission ended, and on demanding and receiving 
his passports, he returned to Mexico. 

Meanwhile, the danger of losing Texas had had the effect of uniting, 
in some measure, the various parties of Mexico, in opposition to the 
measure. Herrera, the president, was disposed to a peaceful adjust- 
ment of the difficulty; but the popular voice was loud against him. 
fPH ON MARIANA PAREDES, a conspicuous mi- 
litary leader, and a bitter enemy of the United 
States, was the principal chief of the opposi- 
tion, and strenuous efforts were now made 
to overthrow the existing government. Her- 
rera, however, maintained a firm pacific 
policy. The government was not in a con- 
dition to become the aggressors in a struggle 
with their northern neighbour ; and news 
was received at Washington that Mexico 
was really willing to listen to terms of recon- 
ciliation. Accordingly, in the month of Sep- 
tember, 1845, instructions were sent from Washington to our consul 
in Mexico, " to ascertain from the Mexican government whether they 
would receive an envoy from the United States, intrusted with full 
power to adjust all questions in dispute between the two govern- 
ments." In October the proposition was submitted to the Mexican 
minister of slate, who returned a favourable answer. His language 
is important. " In answer I have to say to you, that although the 
Mexican nation is deeply injured by the United States through the 
acts committed by them in the department of Texas, which belongs 
to this nation, my government is disposed to receive the commis- 
sioner of the United States who may come to this capital with full 
powers from his government to settle the present dispute, in a peace- 
ful, reasonable, and honourable manner As my government 

believes this invitation to be made in good faith, and with the real 
desire that it may lead to a favourable conclusion, it also hopes that 
the commissioner will be a person endowed with the qualities proper 
for the attainment of this end ; that his dignity, prudence, and mode- 
ration, and the discreetness and reasonableness of his proposals will 




COMMISSIONER APPOINTED. 185 

contribute to calm, as much as possible, the just irritation of the 
Mexicans ; and in fine, that the conduct of the commissioner on all 
points, may be such as to persuade them that they may obtain satis- 
faction for their injuries through the means of reason and peace, and 
without being obliged to resort to those of arms and force." 

As the United States had already sent a naval force to Vera Cruz, 
the Mexican minister requested that it might be withdrawn, "lest its 
continued presence might assume the appearance of menace and 
coercion, pending the negotiations." This was complied with. 

On the 10th of October, 1845, Mr. John Slidell, of Louisiana, was 
commissioned by President Polk, as envoy extraordinary, and minis- 
ter plenipotentiary of the United States to Mexico, and was in- 
trusted with full powers to adjust both the questions of the Texas 
boundary and of indemnification to our citizens. The new functionary 
set out immediately, and arrived at Vera Cruz on the 30th of Novem- 
ber. He was courteously received, but found the country in a state 
of fearful irritation. Notwithstanding that every effort had been 
made by both governments to keep a knowledge of his mission and 
its object, from the people, yet vague rumours had been dissemi- 
nated, and thousands were now openly accusing Herrera of treason, 
in wishing to alienate a portion of Mexico to the United States. 
Government itself was not prepared for his sudden arrival. So long 
as no commissioner or minister was actually in the country, the go- 
vernment seemed able to stand up against the imputations of treason 
which w r ere heaped upon it ; but at this juncture, should the envoy 
suddenly present himself at the capital, it expected to be utterly over- 
thrown. Mr. Black, the American minister, was immediately in- 
formed of this embarrassment, and was earnestly desired to prevail 
on Mr. Slidell to abstain from too sudden an appearance at the capi- 
tal. "His appearance at the capital, at this time," said the minister 
of foreign affars, " might prove destructive to the government, and 
thus defeat the whole affair. You know the opposition are calling 
us traitors for entering into this arrangement with you." The object 
of the government was to delay the negotiation until the following 
month, when the new congress would assemble, under whose coun- 
tenance and protection it would feel itself strong enough to enter 
upon such a delicate business 

On receiving this notice from the Mexican minister, Mr. Black 
immediately left Mexico, and met Mr. Slidell at Puebla. The envoy, 
however, deemed it his duty to proceed immediately to the capital 
He entered it on the 6th of December, and on the 8th requested his 
recognition by the existing government. The Mexican minister de- 
layed an answer, a circumstance that drew two more requests from 
q2 24 



186 CAUSES OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 

the envoy. On the 24th of December, government refused to receive 
Mr. Slidell, in any other capacity than that to which they had at first 
agreed — as a minister to settle the Texas boundary, exclusive of all 
other questions. 

Only a few days after, the storm burst. Herrera was deposed, 
(December 30,) and General Paredes became supreme governor of 
Mexico. He refused to receive Mr. Slidell, and that officer returned 
to the United States. 

Meanwhile President Polk, as head of the national army, had been 
assiduously preparing for war. On the 21st of March, 1845, orders 
were issued to General Zachary Taylor, commandant at Fort Jessup, 
Louisiana, to prepare the troops at that place for marching into Texas 
as soon as ordered. On the 23th of May, Secretary Marcy, of the war 
department, wrote to the general as follows : " By order of the presi- 
dent, you are directed to cause the forces now under your command, 
and those which may be assigned to it, to be put into a position where 
they may most promptly and efficiently act in defence of Texas, in 
the event it should become necessary or proper to employ them for 
that purpose." Further instructions were added by Mr. Bancroft, 
ad interim secretary of war, on the 15th of June, 1S45. "On the 
4th of July, or very soon thereafter, the convention of the people of 
Texas, will probably accept the proposition of annexation, under the 
joint resolution of the late congress of the United States. That ac- 
ceptance will constitute Texas an intregal portion of our country. 

" In anticipation of that event you will forthwith make a forward 
movement with the troops under your command, and advance to the 
mouth of the Sabine, or to such other point on the Gulf of Mexico, 
or its navigable waters, as in your judgment may be most convenient 
for an embarkation, at the proper time for the western frontier ot 

Texas The point of your ultimate destination is the 

western frontier of Texas, where you will select and occupy in or 
near the Rio Grande del Norte, such a site as will consist with the 
health of your troops and will be best adapted to repel invasion, and 
to protect what in the event of annexation will be our western bor- 
der. You will limit yourself to the defence of the territory of Texas, 
unless Mexico should declare war against the United States. Your 
movement to the Gulf of Mexico and your preparations to embark 
for the western frontier of Texas are to be made without delay ; but 
you will not effect a landing on that frontier, until you have yourself 
ascertained the due acceptance by Texas of the proffered terms of 
annexation." 

On the 4th of July, Texas accepted, as has already been men- 
tioned, the joint resolution, thus constituting herself a part of the 



TAYLOR ORDERED TO TEXAS. 



187 




Corpus ChristL 



American Union. On the 7th, she requested President Polk to 
occupy her ports, and send an army for her defence. In answer to 
this demand, the president immediately ordered General Taylor to 
Corpus Christi. He was directed to confine himself to Texas, unless 
the Mexicans attempted to cross the Rio Grande, in which case he 
was authorized to invade Mexico. The propriety of advancing fur- 
ther towards the Rio Grande was left to his discretion. 

During all this time, General Taylor supposed that negotiations for 
peace were being carried on with a prospect of success. This belief 
was strengthened by a letter from Commodore Conner, of the Ameri- 
can Gulf squadron, dated Vera Cruz, October 24, by which the 
general was informed, "that the Mexican government had just 
acceded to the proposal to arrange the existing difficulties by nego- 
tiation. But on the 13th of January, 1846, Secretary Marcy in- 
structed him as follows: — "I am directed by the president to instruct 
you to advance and occupy, with the troops under your command, 
positions on or near the east bank of the Rio del Norte, as soon as it 
can conveniently be done, with reference to the season and the routes 
by which your movements must be made. From the views hereto- 
fore presented to this department, it is presumed Point Isabel will be 
considered by you an eligible situation. This point, or some one 
near it, and points opposite Matamoras and Mier, and in the vicinity 



188 



CAUSES OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 




Drilling raw Recruits. 



of Loredo, are suggested to your consideration. Should you at- 
tempt to exercise the right, which the United States have in common 
with Mexico, to a free navigation of the Del Norte, it is probable 
that Mexico would interpose resistance. You will not attempt to 
enforce this right without further instructions. 

While at Corpus Christi, General Taylor occupied himself in 
teaching his newly levied troops the difficult and tedious duties 01 
military discipline. His whole force was four thousand and forty- 
nine, but in case of emergency he had been authorized " to ac- 
cept volunteers from the states of Louisiana and Alabama, and even 
from Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky." It is added in the 
same letter, " Should Mexico declare war, or commence hostilities, 
by crossing the Rio Grande with a considerable force, you are in- 
structed to lose no time in giving information to the authorities of 
each or any of the above-mentioned states, as to the number of volun- 
teers you may want from them respectively. Should you require 
troops from any of these states, it would be important to have them 
with the least possible delay. The authorities of these states will 
be apprized that you are authorized to receive volunteers from them, 



MARCH TO THE RIO GRANDE. 189 

and you may calculate that they will promptly join you when it is 
made known that their services are required. Orders have been 
issued to the naval force in the Gulf of Mexico to co-operate with 
you. You will, as far as practicable, hold communication with the 
commanders of our national vessels in your vicinity, and avail your- 
self of any assistance that can be derived from their co-operation." 

Corpus Christi is well situated, both for promoting the health of an 
army, and affording opportunities for the evolutions of discipline. 
The village stands on the western shore of Corpus Christi bay. It 
consists of some twenty or thirty houses, partly situated on a shelf 
of land elevated some six or eight feet above the water, about two 
hundred yards broad, and on a bluff which rises from the plain to 
the height of one hundred feet. The bay at this point is in the shape 
of a crescent, extending in a south-east direction to Padre Island, 
and north-west to the mouth of the Nueces. 

On the 8th of March the second regiment of dragoons under Colo- 
nel Twiggs, with Ringgold's artillery, commenced its march for the 
Rio Grande. The first and second brigade, under General Worth and 
Lieutenant-Colonel Mcintosh followed on the 9th and 10th. The re- 
mainder of the army, accompanied by General Taylor and staff, left 
on the 11th. The variety of scenery through which the troops 
passed, during this march, has perhaps never been surpassed within 
the same limits. At first the country appeared like one vast garden, 
waving with flowers of the most gorgeous dyes. Then followed a 
rolling prairie, succeeded by an arid waste, destitute of either water 
or vegetation. "We had fourteen miles to march to get water," says 
Captain Henry, on the 18th of March, " and w T ere forced to halt re- 
peatedly ; and the men sat down with parched mouths upon the hot 
sand, with the tropical sun beating on them. The prairie had a few 
sickly blades of grass upon it ; the sand was like hot ashes, and when 
you stepped upon it you sank up to the ankle. The last two miles I 
could not but pity the men ; many gave out and lay down by the 
roadside, perfectly exhausted, and looking as if they did not care for 
life." This was succeeded by a more genial region, consisting of a 
hard clayey soil, covered by light vegetation and woods. On reach- 
ing the Colorado, [March 20,] the Americans observed about thirty 
Mexicans, who threatened to fire, should the general cross that stream. 
At the same time bugles were sounded for a considerable distance 
up the river, and a skirmish seemed inevitable. The general pre- 
pared to cross ; and while his men were cutting down the bank to 
facilitate the passage of the train, he apprized the Mexicans, that the 
first Mexican he saw, after his men had entered the water, should be 
shot. The troops then pushed into the river, the batteries were 



190 CAUSES OF THE MEXICAN WAR 

drawn up to cover the passage, and the port fires lighted. A batta- 
lion of four artillery companies, under Captain C. F. Smith, com- 
posed the forlorn hope. General Worth and staff rode to their front 
and led the way. At this moment the adjutant-general of General 
Mejia, commandant of Matamoras, approached General Taylor with 
a paper from his superior, forbidding his crossing, and stating that 
he would regard the act as a declaration of war. He further declared 
that a fight was inevitable. The Americans crossed, however, with- 
out opposition. 

West of the Colorado, the appearance of the country took an 
entire change, presenting a beauty and luxuriance, as new to the 
soldiers as it was healthful and refreshing. Captain Henry, speak- 
ing of the 24th of March, says : — " I do not think I have ever felt a 
sweeter or a fresher morning. The morning-star and moon were 
about setting; the former, even as day broke, looked like a diamond 
set in the clear blue sky. The country was beautiful. We marched 
through a wilderness of mesquite and acacia thickets, fragrant with 
the blossom of the latter. The grass was rich. The pea-vine, with 
its delicate blossom abundant, and the country sufficiently rolling to 
relieve the eye. The air from the sea was delightful, and every 
thing in nature appeared so happy, that it was perfectly exhilarating. 

Emerging from the mesquite, after a march of three miles, we 

came suddenly upon an open prairie, extending apparently to the 
gulf, with no trees visible. The mirage in the distance was beauti- 
ful ; singular, too, for it looked as if the prairie was on fire, wdiereas 
it was the waves of this peculiarly heated atmosphere. We marched 
for some distance through a wilderness of wild peas, than which 
nothing is more nutritious for animals ; the mesquite grass was also 
very luxuriant. 

On the evening of the 23d, General Taylor was met by a Mexi- 
can from Point Isabel, who reported that the guard stationed there 
had left for Matamoras, and that all the houses, except one, had been 
burned. On the following day, the general halted his command on 
the road, and leaving the main army with General Worth, he started 
for Point Isabel with the wagons and an escort of dragoons. Worth 
marched the troops within twelve miles of Matamoras, and there 
halted. 

When near Point Isabel, General Taylor was met by a number of 
Mexicans, among whom was the prefect of Tamaulipas. These had 
been constituted a mission to protest against his occupation of their 
territory. While the interview lasted, smoke was observed to rise 
from the point, and the general was convinced that its buildings had 
been purposely fired. He therefore directed the attention of the 



AMERICAN ARMY AT THE RIO GRANDE. 



191 




Point Isabel. 



delegation to this evidence of hostility, and informed them, that their 
communication would be answered by him, when opposite Mata- 
moras. He then sent the dragoons, under Colonel Twiggs, to arrest 
the flames. The colonel succeeded in saving- a few buildings • but 
the Mexican authorities had alreadly left the place. General Taylor 
soon followed the dragoons, and had the satisfaction to find that the 
expected supplies had already arrived by steamboat. The point 
was surveyed with a view to its defence, and a work ordered to be 
constructed under the superintendence of Captain Sanders of the 
engineers. Major John Munroe, who had lately arrived with the 
transports, was intrusted with the command. He was provided with 
two companies of artillery, consisting of about four hundred and fifty 
men, with six brass six-pounders, two long eighteens, and two ships' 
guns. The fort was amply provided with provisions, powder, and 
ball. 

On the 25th, General Worth moved the camp three miles to Palo 
Alto. Here, on the 27th, he was joined by General Taylor, at the 
head of the dragoons and staff. The march recommenced on the 
28th; at eleven o'clock of which day, the army reached the Rio 
Grande. 

Thus ended the famous march from Corpus Christi to the Del 
Norte. As a military feat, there is nothing remarkable about it, ex- 
cept the exactness and promptitude with which each part was exe- 



192 CAUSES OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 

cuted. But its consequences were weighty ; it was the immediate 
cause of the commencement of hostilities by the Mexicans. It is cer- 
tain, that prior to it, the inhabitants along the river were well disposed 
toward the Americans. Traders from Matamoras were constantly in 
the camp at Corpus Christi. In February, General Taylor mentions 
some influential citizens of that town as then in his camp, with a 
large number of mules for sale. The interview with the prefect of 
Tamaulipas, and the warning at the Arroya Colorado had led to 
no ill words or rash conduct. Thus far, all had been bloodless. 

During the march, the great advantages of the discipline acquired 
at Corpus Christi, were conspicuously exhibited. With large por- 
tions of the troops, it was the first time that the evolutions of the line 
had been witnessed. At the Colorado, in the face of expected re- 
sistance, the passage was effected with a degree of order, regularity, 
and despatch, eminently creditable. The field-pieces being placed 
in battery on the banks, so as to cover the crossing, the advance was 
led by Captain C. F. Smith, of the 2d artillery, with the light com- 
panies of the 2d bigade, (Worth's.) A more steady and spirited 
movement has rarely been witnessed. The same promptness, and 
soldier-like conduct, was displayed by Colonel Twiggs at Point Isabel. 

Two hours after the arrival of the Americans opposite Matamoras, 
the national flag was planted on the river bank, amid strains of pa- 
triotic music. Simultaneously with its appearance the colours of 
France, Spain, and England were run up from the different con- 
sulates. Not long previous to this, two dragoons of the advance 
guard were surprised by the Mexicans, and carried prisoners into 
Matamoras. This seizure caused much excitement ; but on the re- 
quisition of General Taylor, the men with their effects were promptly 
returned. They had received good treatment. Immediately after 
this ceremony, General Worth and staff was sent by General Taylor, 
as the bearer of despatches to the commandant at Matamoras. Worth 
appeared on the Rio Grande, holding a white flag, and was soon met 
by two Mexican officers and an interpreter in a boat. After considerable 
delay, General Mejia, the commandant, sent General La Vega to meet 
the American officer. A long but fruitless altercation ensued. 
Worth demanded an interview with the American consul, which was 
refused ; and he then informed La Vega, that the refusal was consi- 
dered as a "belligerent act." Soon after the conference closed, and 
the Americans recrossed the river. 

Matamoras, as seen from the American camp, is thus described by 
Captain Henry : " The main body of the city is half a mile from the 
river ; scattering houses near the bank. From our position we can 
discover several strongholds, and it looks as if it was well defended. 



DESCRIPTION OF M ATA MORAS. 



193 



It is reported that the different forts are well supplied with ammuni- 
tion, and ordnance of heavy calibre. At this point the river runs 
nearly east and west, and is one hundred and seventy yards wide. 
The city is on the south side, and situated in an alluvial bottom. 
The soil is very rich, and of a similar character to that on the Mis- 
sissippi. If the climate is not too dry it must be immensely valuable. 
The river reminds one a good deal of the Arkansas, and the water 
is capital for drinking. The Mexicans expected we would have struck 
the river higher up, opposite their main ferry, where they are reported 
to be actively engaged in throwing up a work." 




Mexican Lancer. 



R 



25 




The City of Mats moras. 



CHAPTER X. 



OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN ON THE RIO GRANDE. 
FORT BROWN. 



SIEGE OF 



N the foregoing chapter, we have endea- 
voured to detect and trace the genuine causes 
. of hostilities between the United States 
and Mexico. Commencing at the battle of 
San Jacinto, we have discovered the desire 
of the Texans, even at that early date, to be 
admitted into the northern Union — the ele- 
ments of that desire — the efforts to satisfy it — 
the progress of the question of annexation — 
its final consummation, in opposition to the 
pointed remonstrances of Mexico — the consequent position assumed 
by the latter power — the failure of negotiation — finally, the march 
of an armed American force through Texas to the verge of 
Mexico. As yet, it is true, there had been no declaration of war, or 
(194) 




ERECTION OF FORT BROWN. 195 

any act of international hostility ; but this state of things could not 
long last. A breath of wind was sufficient to lower the balance for 
either peace or war ; and unhappily for humanity, the dark side of 
the alternative prevailed. The partition between the two republics 
was broken down. The windows of wrath opened, and the besom 
of destruction swept over Mexico, with a speed and violence which 
soon threatened to blot out her nationality for ever. 

The first military operations on both sides were purely defensive. 
General Taylor, on March 29th, the day after arriving on the river, 
says, " Our approach seems to have created much excitement in 
Matamoras, and a great deal of activity has been displayed since our 
arrival in the preparation of batteries. The left bank is now under 
reconnoissance of our engineer officers, and I shall lose no time in 
strengthening our position, by such defensive works as may be ne- 
cessary, employing for that purpose a portion of the heavy guns 
brought round by sea." A few days after, he adds, " On our side, 
a battery for four eighteen-pounders will be completed, and the guns 
placed in battery to-day. The guns bear directly upon the public 
square of Matamoras, and within good range for demolishing the 
town. Their object cannot be mistaken by the enemy, and will, I 
think, effectually restrain him from any enterprises upon our side of 
the river. A strong bastioned field fort for a garrison of five hun- 
dred men has been laid out by the engineers in the rear of the bat- 
tery, and will be commenced immediately. This work will enable 
a brigade to maintain this position against any Mexican odds, and 
will leave me free to dispose of the other corps as considerations of 
health and convenience may render desirable." Such was the com- 
mencement of Fort Brown, which subsequently became famous for 
its gallant resistance to a vastly superior force, and for the death of 
the lamented officer after whom it was named. 

During the night of March 29th, the Mexicans mounted a heavy 
gun in a battery made of sand bags, and other works were erected at 
different stations along the river. On the evening following, the 
American camp was thrown into excitement by a report that the 
enemy had determined on a night attack. It was also affirmed that 
they had crossed the river, and were marching towards Point Isabel. 
General Taylor immediately took active measures to provide for the 
worst. The watchword was given, and the troops ordered to sleep 
upon their arms. In addition to this, Captain May, with a squadron 
of the 2d dragoons, was directed to ride to Point Isabel, a distance 
of twenty-seven miles, in four hours, so as to reinforce the garrison 
of Major Munroe. Morning dawned ; no gun was fired, and no 
attack made upon the point. 



196 



CAMPAIGN ON THE RIO GRANDE. 



During the whole of this and the following day, the enemy worked 
hard to complete their sand bag batteries. Fort Paredes, the princi- 
pal work, was erected to control the passage of the river. 

An alarming symptom now showed itself in the American camp. 
The men began to desert in considerable numbers, swimming the 
ri rer to Matamoras, where they were kindly received. Orders were 
issued to shoot all who made the attempt, and these orders were 
strictly carried into execution. On the 4th of April, a deserter was 
shot dead in the water, and on the 5th another. Several followed the 
same night. One man, on the 8th, succeeded in reaching the oppo- 
site shore, but as he crawled out of the water, the sentinel fired, and 
he fell dead. He was immediately taken up and buried by the Mexi- 
cans. This shot, although from a musket, was at a distance of more 
than two hundred yards. Three slaves, belonging to officers, also ran 
away. 

ENERAL AMPUDIA sought to in- 
crease desertions by the following 
address ; he was at that time ad- 
vancing to take command of Mat- 
amoras. It appears to have been 
distributed through a considerable 




portion of the American camp. 
It begins — " The commander-in- 
chief of the Mexican army to the 
English and Irish under the orders 
of the American General Taylor. 
" Know ye : — That the government 
of the United States is committing repeated acts of barbarous aggres- 
sion against the magnanimous Mexican nation ; that the government 
which exists under the flag of the stars is unworthy the designation of 
Christian. Recollect that you were born in Great Britain ; that the 
American government looks with coldness upon the powerful flag of 
St. George, and is provoking to a rupture the warlike people to which 
it belongs ; President Polk boldly manifesting a desire to take posses- 
sion of Oregon, as he has already done of Texas. Now then come 
with all confidence to the Mexican ranks, and I guarantee to you, 
upon my honour, good treatment, and that all your expenses shall be 
defrayed until your arrival in the beautiful capital of Mexico. 

" Germans, French, Poles, and individuals of other nations ! Sepa- 
rate yourselves from the Yankees, and do not contribute to defend a 
robbery and usurpation, which, be assured, the civilized nations of 
Europe look upon with the utmost indignation. Come, therefore, and 
array yourselves under the tri-coloured flag, in the confidence that 












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In TTX 

vtr\\ 

B 








wi 


t^Tj^U / f /■?$&/ ///ill fllmiWWWWP^ 







^ T 5 Tnl,T |!^iT' TT ' 1 ' : " ""'■. |iijipip iiiii; ' ;i;;i:i'::!i; iii! i!iii 



DEATH OF COLONEL CROSS. 



199 




the God of armies protects it, and that it will protect you equally 
wilh the English." This produced little effect. 

HE 10th of April was signalized by 
"\ the disappearance and subsequent 
death of Colonel Truemen Cross, 
" the first victim of the Mexican 
war." He was assistant quarter- 
master-general of the army of oc- 
cupation, and highly popular with 
both officers and men. His custom 
was to ride out every morning for 
exercise and the benefit of his 
health, but his long absence on the 
10th gave rise to painful suspicions, 
since the country was known to 
swarm with outlaws of the blackest character, who, for the sake of 
plunder, spared neither rank, age, or sex. As evening approached, 
parties were sent in search of him, cannon were fired to direct 
him, if lost, and other means taken to ascertain his fate. Letters 
were also addressed to the commandant of Matamoras, who, how- 
ever, disclaimed all knowledge of the colonel's disappearance. 
Anxiety changed to fear, and fear to a settled belief of the worst. No 
intelligence was obtained until the 21st, when a straggler entered 
camp and reported that he knew where lay the body of an American 
officer. A party accompanied him to a small thicket, some dis- 
tance from camp, where lay the mutilated remains of the ill-fated 
Cross. 

The spot was at a short distance from the river. The body had 
been stripped, and the flesh afterwards torn off by vultures. It was 
recognized by portions of the clothes, the scalp, and teeth. The re- 
mains were brought to camp, and on the 25th General Taylor issued 
an order, passing a high eulogium on the deceased, and directing his 
funeral to take place on the following day, with military honours. 
The funeral escort consisted of a squadron of dragoons and eight 
companies of infantry, under Colonel Twiggs. The remains were 
buried near the river bank, in sight of both armies. 

This event threw a gloom over the Americans, and excited strong 
feelings of vengeance against the Mexicans. But there is no reason 
to believe that the authorities in Matamoras had any knowledge of 
his murder. The account given by the straggler who brought the in- 
formation of his remains, is probably the true one : that he had been 
attacked by the banditti band of Romano Falcon, and stripped of 
every thing except necessary clothing. The men were willing to 
r2 



200 CAMPAIGN ON THE RIO GRANDE. 

spare his life, and carry him to Matamoras ; but, during the dispute 
on the propriety of this step, Falcon killed the prisoner by a blow 
from the butt of his pistol, and afterwards drew the body into the 
bushes. 

On the 11th of April, General Ampudia made his long expected 
entrance into Matamoras. The joyful inhabitants hailed his arrival 
by parading the troops, playing national music, ringing the church 
bells, and firing a salute of twenty guns. The event was, to the 
Americans, highly satisfactory, for it was generally believed that mat- 
ters would take a definite complexion, either of peace or war. They 
were not disappointed. On the 12th, the new commander wrote to 
General Taylor as follows : 

" To explain to you the many grounds for the just grievances felt 
by the Mexican nation, caused by the United States government, 
would be a loss of time, and an insult to your good sense ; I, there- 
fore, pass at once to such explanations as I consider of absolute 
necessity. 

"Your government, in an incredible manner — you will even per- 
mit me to say an extravagant one, if the usage or general rules 
established and received among all civilized nations are regarded — 
has not only insulted, but has exasperated the Mexican nation, bear- 
ing its conquering banner to the Rio Bravo del Norte ; and in this 
case, by explicit and definite orders of my government, which neither 
can, will, nor should receive new outrage, / require you, in aliform, 
and at latest in tJie peremptory term of twenty-four hours, to break up 
your camp and retire to the other bank of the river, while our govern- 
ments are regulating the pending question in relation to Texas. 

"If you insist in remaining upon the soil of the department of 
Tamaulipas, it will clearly result that arms, and arms alone, must de- 
cide the question; and in that case, I advise you that we accept the war 
to which, with so much injustice on your part, you provoke us, and 
that, on our part, this war shall be conducted conformably to the 
principles established by the most civilized nations : that is to say, 
that the law of nations and of war shall be the guide of my opera- 
tions ; trusting, that, on your part, the same will be observed. With 
this view, I tender the consideration due to your person and respect- 
able office." 

General Taylor replied in the following language : 

' I have had the honour to receive your note of this date, in which 
you summon me to withdraw the forces under my command from 
their present position, and beyond the river Nueces, until the pend- 
ing question between our governments, relative to the limits of Texas, 
shall be settled. I need hardly advise you, that, charged as I am, 



Taylor's reply to ampudia. 201 

in only a military capacity, with the performance of specific duties, I 
cannot enter into a discussion of the international question involved 
in the advance of the American army. You will, however, permit 
me to say that the government of the United States has constantly 
sought a settlement, by negotiation, of the question of boundary ; 
that an envoy was despatched to Mexico for that purpose, and that, 
up to the most recent dates, said envoy had not been received by the 
actual Mexican government, if indeed he has not received his pass- 
ports and left the republic. In the mean time, I have been ordered 
to occupy the country up to the left bank of the Rio Grande, until 
the boundary shall be definitely settled. In carrying out these in- 
structions, I have carefully abstained from all acts of hostility, obey- 
ing in this regard, not only the letter of my instructions, but the plain 
dictates of justice and humanity. 

" The instructions under which I am acting will not permit me to 
retrograde from the position I now occupy. In view of the relations 
between our respective governments, and the individual suffering 
which may result, I regret the alternative which you offer ; but, at 
the same time, wish it understood that I shall by no means avoid such 
alternative, leaving the responsibility with those who rashly com- 
mence hostilities. 

"In conclusion, you will permit me to give you the assurance, that, 
on my part, the laws and customs of war among civilized nations 
shall be carefully observed." 

,HE American commander was careful to pre- 
pare for the expected attack. On the recep- 
tion of Ampudia's letter, the 1st brigade was 
moved to the right, and early on the follow- 
ing morning, (13th,) the 2d to the left, both 
out of range of the enemy's shot. At the 
same time Colonel Twiggs, with the dragoons 
and Ringgold's battery, occupied the centre, 
while the 3d brigade was moved into the 
interior of the field work, together with 
Bragg's and Duncan's batteries. In this 
position the 3d brigade was defiladed from 
the fires of the enemy, and the remainder formed a line so strong 
that the camp was considered impregnable. Simultaneously with these 
movements, and immediately afterwards, rumours reached camp that 
the enemy had crossed the river in large numbers below ; in conse- 
quence of which the 4th infantry, 1st company of dragoons, and 
Ringgold's battery, were ordered to march immediately, and meet 
the train coming from Point Isabel. Captain Thornton was also 

26 



5) 




'202 CAMPAIGN ON THE RIO GRANDE. 

despatched to ascertain the truth of the rumours. He returned with- 
out having seen the enemy, and about the same time the train reached 
the camp in safety. 

On the 17th, the Americans lost another valuable officer, by an 
outrage similar to that which had occasioned the death of Cross. It 
will be remembered, that up to this time no intelligence of the colo- 
nel's fate had reached camp ; but, from time to time, small parties 
were sent in quest of him. One of these was led by Lieutenant 
Dobbins of the 3d infantry, and Lieutenant Porter of the 4th, each 
having ten men and a non-commissioned officer. Besides their main 
object, they avowed the intention of capturing, if possible, the band 
of Romano Falcon. On the 18th, Lieutenant Porter's sergeant re- 
turned with a report that his superior had been killed ; and on the 
day following, the sad story was confirmed. It appears that Lieu- 
tenant Dobbins had separated from Lieutenant Porter, with an under- 
standing to meet him at a certain spot. About 2 P. M., on the 19th, 
the latter officer came up with a party of armed Mexicans engaged 
in jerking beef. While approaching their camp, a Mexican snapped 
his piece at Lieutenant Porter, who returned it with both barrels of 
his gun. The enemy immediately fled, and the lieutenant found 
himself in the possession of ten horses and twenty Mexican blankets. 
He immediately mounted his men, and proceeded towards the camp. 
By this time it had commenced raining violently. After proceeding 
a short distance, the party were attacked near a dense chaparral, by 
a number of Mexicans concealed among the thick bushes. One 
man was shot down, and the fire became so brisk, that the lieutenant 
ordered his men to dismount. His men's pieces had been rendered 
nearly useless by the rain ; and in firing his own, both barrels snapped. 
While calling to a soldier to hand him a musket, he was shot in the 
left thigh, and fell. He exhorted his followers to fight on; but, being 
without available arms, they separated, and strayed towards the Ameri- 
can camp. " During the fight, the enemy yelled like Indians. As soon 
as our men broke, they rushed upon the lieutenant and Flood. The 
latter they surrounded, and deliberately stabbed with their knives, 
and then despatched Lieutenant Porter in the same manner. Lieu- 
tenant Porter was the son of the late Commodore Porter, and 
entered the army in 1838. He was a gallant officer, and much 
esteemed in his regiment. His fate is truly deplorable. Two com- 
mands were sent out to seek for his body ; but they found neither it, 
nor the spot where the fight took place. All parts of the country are 
so precisely similar, and destitute of landmarks, that it is almost an 
impossibility to return to any one spot." 



ampudia's letter TO GENERAL TAYLOR. 203 




N the 22d, a correspondence 
took place between the two 
commanders, which is not only 
highly characteristic of each, 
but shows in what light each 
regarded the cause he was en- 
gaged in, and his own ability 
to support it. The subject is 
fully explained in the following 
despatch of Ampudia : 

u From various sources wor- 
thy of confidence, I have learned 
that some vessels bound for the 
mouth of the river have not 
been able to effect an entrance 
into that port, in consequence of your orders that they should be con- 
ducted to Brazos Santiago. 

" The cargo of one of them is composed in great part, and of the 
other entirely, of provisions which the contractors charged with pro- 
viding for the army under my orders had procured to fulfil the obli- 
gations of their contracts. 

"You have taken possession of these provisions by force, and 
against the will of the proprietors, one of whom is vice-consul of her 
Catholic majesty, and the other of her Britannic majesty; and whose 
rights, in place of being religiously respected, as was proffered, and 
as was to be hoped from the observance of the principles which 
govern among civilized nations, have, on the contrary, been violated 
in the most extraordinary manner, opposed to the guarantee and 
respect due to private property. 

" Nothing can have authorized you in such a course. The com- 
merce of nations is not suspended or interrupted, except in conse- 
quence of a solemn declaration of blockade, communicated and esta- 
blished in the form prescribed by international law. Nevertheless, 
you have infringed these rules, and, by an act which can never be 
viewed favourably to the United States government, have hindered the 
entrance to a Mexican port of vessels bound to it, under the confi- 
dence that commerce would not be interrupted. My duties do not 
allow me to consent to this new species of hostility, and they 
constrain me to require of you, not only that the vessels taken by 
force to Brazos Santiago, shall be at liberty to return to the mouth 
of the river, but the restoration of all the provisions which, 
besides belonging to private contractors, were destined for the 
troops on this frontier. I consider it useless to inculcate the justice 



204 CAMPAIGN ON THE RIO GRANDE. 

of this demand, and the results which may follow an unlooked-foi 
refusal. 

" I have also understood that two Mexicans, carried down in a 
boat by the current of the river, near one of the advanced posts of 
your camp, were detained, after being fired upon, and that they are 
still kept and treated as prisoners. The individuals in question do 
not belong to the army, and this circumstance exempts them from the 
laws of war. I therefore hope, that you will place them absolutely 
at liberty, as I cannot be persuaded that you pretend to extend to 
persons not military the consequences of an invasion, which, with- 
out employing this means of rigour against unarmed citizens, is 
marked in itself with the seal of universal reprobation." 

General Taylor answered as follows : 

" I have had the honour to receive your communication of this 
date, in which you complain of certain measures adopted by my 
orders to close the mouth of the Rio Bravo against vessels bound to 
Matamoras, and in which you also advert to the case of two Mexi- 
cans supposed to be detained as prisoners in this camp. 

" After all that has passed since the American army first approached 
the Rio Bravo, I am certainly surprised that you should complain of 
a measure which is no other than a natural result of a state of war 
so much insisted upon by the Mexican authorities as actually exist- 
ing at this time. You will excuse me for recalling a few circum- 
stances to show that this state of war has not been sought by the 
American army, but has been forced upon it, and that the exercise 
of the rights incident to such a state cannot be made a subject of 
complaint. 

" On breaking up my camp at Corpus Christi, and moving forward 
with the army under my orders, to occupy the left bank of the Rio 
Bravo, it was my earnest desire to execute my instructions in a pacific 
manner ; to observe the utmost regard for the personal rights of all 
citizens residing on the left bank of the river, and to take care that 
the religion and customs of the people should suffer no violation. 
With this view, and to quiet the minds of the inhabitants, I issued 
orders to the army, enjoining a strict observance of the rights and in- 
terests of all Mexicans residing on the river, and caused said orders 
to be translated into Spanish, and circulated in the several towns on 
the Bravo. These orders announced the spirit in which we pro- 
posed to occupy the country, and I am proud to say, that up to this 
moment the same spirit has controlled the operations of the army. 
On reaching the Arroyo Colorado, I was informed by a Mexican 
officer, that the order in question had been received in Matamoras ; 
but was told at the same time that if I attempted to cross the river, 



TAYLORS REPLY TO AMPUDIA. 205 

it would be regarded as a declaration of war. Again, on my march 
to Frontone, I was met by a deputation of the civil authorities of 
Matamoras, protesting against my occupation of a portion of the 
department of Tamaulipas, and declaring that, if the army was not at 
once withdrawn, war would result. While this communication was 
in my hands, it was discovered that the village of Frontone had been 
set on fire and abandoned. I viewed this as a direct act of war, and 
informed the deputation that their communication would be answered 
by me when opposite Matamoras, which was done in respectful 
terms. On reaching the river, I despatched an officer, high in rank, 
to convey to the commanding general in Matamoras the expression 
of my desire for amicable relations, and my willingness to leave open 
to the use of the citizens of Matamoras the port of Brazos Santiago, 
until the question of boundary should be definitely settled. This 
officer received for reply, from the officer selected to confer with 
him, that my advance to the Rio Bravo was considered as a veri- 
table act of war, and he was absolutely refused an interview with 
the American consul, in itself an act incompatible with a state of 
peace. 

"Notwithstanding these repeated assurances on the part of the 
Mexican authorities, and notwithstanding the most obviously hostile 
preparations on the right bank of the river, accompanied by a rigid 
non-intercourse, I carefully abstained from any act of hostility, de- 
termined that the onus of producing an actual state of hostilities 
should not rest with me. Our relations remained in this state until 
I had the honour to receive your note of the 12th instant, in which 
you denounce war as an alternative of my remaining in this position. 
As I could not, under my instructions, recede from my position, I 
accepted the alternative you offered me, and made all my disposi- 
tions to meet it suitably. But, still willing to adopt milder measures 
before proceeding to others, I contented myself in the first instance 
with ordering a blockade of the mouth of the Rio Bravo by the naval 
forces under my orders — a proceeding perfectly consonant with the 
state of war so often declared to exist, and which you acknowledge 
in your note of the 16th instant, relative to the late Colonel Cross. 
If this measure seems oppressive, I wish it borne in mind that it has 
been forced upon me by the course you have seen fit to adopt. I 
have reported this blockade to my government, and shall not remove 
it until I receive instructions to that effect, unless indeed you desire an 
armistice pending the final settlement of the question between the go- 
vernments, or until war shall be formally declared by either, in which 
case I shall cheerfully open the river. In regard to the consequence? 



206 CAMPAIGN ON THE RIO GRANDE. 

you mention as resulting from a refusal to remove the blockade, 
I beg you to understand that I am prepared for them, be they what 
they may. 

" In regard to the particular vessels referred to in your communi- 
cation, I have the honour to advise you that, in pursuance of my 
orders, two American schooners, bound for Matamoras, were warned 
off on the 17th instant, when near the mouth of the river, and put to 
sea, returning probably to New Orleans. They were not seized, or 
their cargoes disturbed in any way, nor have they been in the har- 
bour of Brazos Santiago to my knowledge. A Mexican schooner, 
understood to be the ' Juanita,' was in or off that harbour when my 
instructions to blockade the river were issued, but was driven to sea 
in a gale, since which time I have had no report concerning her. 
Since the receipt of your communication, I have learned that two 
persons, sent to the mouth of the river to procure information respect- 
ing this vessel, proceeded thence to Brazos Santiago, where they 
were taken up and detained by the officer in command, until my 
orders could be received. I shall order their immediate release. 
A letter from one of them to the Spanish vice-consul is respectfully 
transmitted herewith. 

" In relation to the Mexicans said to have drifted down the river 
in a boat, and to be prisoners at this time in my camp, I have the 
pleasure to inform you that no such persons have been taken pri- 
soners, or are now detained by my authority. The boat in question was 
carried down empty by the current of the river, and drifted ashore 
near one of our pickets, and was secured by the guard. Some time 
afterwards an attempt was made to recover the boat under the cover 
of the darkness ; the individuals concerned were hailed by the guard, 
and, failing to answer, were fired upon as a matter of course. What 
became of them is not known, as no trace of them could be discovered 
on the following morning. The officer of the Mexican guard, di- 
rectly opposite, was informed next day that the boat would be re- 
turned on proper application to me, and I have now only to repeat 
that assurance. 

" In conclusion, I take leave to state that I consider the tone of 
your communication highly exceptionable, where you stigmatize the 
movement of the army under my orders as ' marked with the seal 
of universal reprobation.' You must be aware that such language is 
not respectful in itself, either to me or my government ; and while I 
observe in my own correspondence the courtesy due to your high 
position, and to the magnitude of the interests with which we are 
respectively charged, I shall expect the same in return." 



SURPRISE OF THORNTON S COMMAND. 



207 




ENERAL ARISTA arrived in Mata- 
moras on the 25th, and assumed com- 
mand of the military force there. He 
communicated this fact to General 
Taylor in a note courteously worded, 
but acknowledging a state of war be- 
tween the two countries, and a deter- 
mination to prosecute it with vigour. 
During the same afternoon, an event 
occurred which displays the determi- 
nation of the Mexicans to use every 
effort to retain what they considered 
their just possessions. Report reached the American camp that the 
enemy were crossing the river, both above and below ; and to ascer- 
tain the truth of it, General Taylor despatched a dragoon party under 
Captain Ker, to the lower ford, and another to the upper, under 
Captain Thornton, accompanied by Captain Hardee, Lieutenants 
Kane and Mason, and sixty-one non-commissioned officers and pri- 
vates. Captain Ker, on arriving at his destination, found no appear- 
ance of an enemy, and returned. Thornton's command proceeded 
up the Rio Grande about twenty-four miles, and as was supposed, to 
within about three miles of the Mexican camp, when the guide 
refused to go further, stating for his reason that the whole country 
was infested with Mexicans. The party, however, proceeded on 
about two miles, when they reached a farmhouse, entirely inclosed 
by a chaparral fence, with the exception of the portion bordering on 
the river. This was so boggy as to be impassable. Thornton en- 
tered the inclosure through a pair of bars, and rode towards the house, 
in order to gain some information from its inmates. His command 
followed. Suddenly a sharp firing was heard from the surrounding 
chaparral, and the Americans now perceived that they had been 
entrapped. Thickets seemed alive with armed soldiery, who are 
stated to have numbered twenty-five hundred. The captain did not 
lose his presence of mind, but wheeling his command, attempted to 
charge through the assailants, and pass out by the way he had entered ; 
but this was found to be impracticable. At this juncture, Captain 
Hardee approached for the purpose of suggesting some plan of 
escape, when Thornton's horse, having received a shot, ran with 
him towards the chaparral fence, which he cleared with one leap, 
and then plunged towards a precipice. Here he fell, and the cap- 
tain being underneath, remained insensible for five or six hours. 
He afterwards arose, and although both himself and the animal 
were much hurt, he succeeded in approaching within a few miles of 



208 



CAMPAIGN ON THE RIO GRANDE. 




Captain Thornton's Skirmish with the Mexicans. 



Hie camp. Here he was met by a party of Mexicans, and carried 
»nto Matamoras. 

Meanwhile, Captain Hardee had assumed command of the party, 
and attempted to reach the river bank, and thence escape by swim- 
ming. But the marshy nature of the ground prevented this. He 
then determined to make all the resistance in his power, and, dis- 
mounting, he examined his men's weapons, and exhorted them to sell 
their lives as dearly as possible. While thus engaged, he was ap- 
proached by a Mexican officer, who demanded a surrender. He 
answered that he would do so only on one condition — that of being 
treated as civilized nations treat prisoners of war. The officer bore 
this message to the commanding general, and returned with the 
assurance that the request should be granted. The surrender took 
place accordingly, and the prisoners were carried into Matamoras. 
Arista received them with respect, put them on half pay, and gave 
each a daily ration, or its equivalent in money. Captain Hardee, 
Lieutenant Kane, and the other officers lived with General Ampudia, 
and ate at his table. 

In this affair, Lieutenant Mason, two sergeants, and eight privates 
were killed. The enemy were led by General Torrejon, and their 
success was mainly owing to the complete concealment afforded them 
by the thick chaparral, which rendered it impossible for an advanc- 
ing force to perceive any ambuscade, however large. Notwithstand- 



MEXICANS CROSS THE RIO GRANDE. 211 

ing the great disparity of force, the Mexican general claimed it as a 
complete victory, and confidently looked forward to the final triumph 
of the Mexican arms. 

Only a few days previous to Thornton's adventure, General Arista 
circulated a document among the foreigners of the American army, 
similar to that of Ampudia, but more artfully worded. Part of it 
reads as follows : 

" It is to no purpose if they tell you that the law for the annexation 
of Texas justifies your occupation of the Rio Bravo del Norte ; for by 
this act they rob us of a great part of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Chihua- 
hua, and New Mexico ; and it is barbarous to send a handful of men 
on such an errand, against a powerful and warlike nation. Besides, 
the most of you are Europeans, and we are the declared friends of 
a majority of the nations of Europe. The North Americans are am- 
bitious, overbearing, and insolent as a nation, and they will only 
make use of you as vile tools to carry out their abominable plans of 
pillage and rapine. 

" I warn you in the name of justice, honour, and your own inte- 
rests and self-respect, to abandon their desperate and unholy cause, 
and become peaceful Mexican citizens. I guarantee you in such 
case a half section of land, or three hundred and twenty acres to set- 
tle upon, gratis. Be wise, then, and just and honourable, and take 
no part in murdering us who have no unkind feelings for you. Lands 
shall be given to officers, sergeants, and corporals, according to rank, 
privates receiving three hundred and twenty acres as stated." 

The enemy now crossed the river in large detachments, and spread 
themselves between the river fort and Point Isabel. The latter w r as 
in daily expectation of an attack. All communication with General 
Taylor was cut off, and the Americans prepared to meet the inevi- 
table shock of arms with a cool and determined firmness worthy of 
the national character. Yet Major Munroe did not lose time in 
groundless apprehensions. As soon as his intercourse w T ith General 
Taylor ceased, he began preparations for resisting any sudden attack, 
strengthening his regular force, by landing the officers and men on 
board the ships lying near the harbour. 

The commanding general was in a similar situation. " Strong 
guards of foot," he writes, " and mounted men, are established on 
the margin of the river, and thus efficient means have been adopted 
on our part to prevent all intercourse. While opposite to us their 
pickets extend above and below for several miles, and we are 
equally active in keeping up a strong and vigilant guard, to prevent 
surprise, or attacks under disadvantageous circumstances. This is 
the more necessary whilst we have to act on the defensive, and they 



212 CAMPAIGN ON THE RIO GRANDE. 

are at liberty to take the opposite course whenever they are disposed 
to do so. Nor have we been idle in other respects ; we have a field- 
work under way, besides having erected a strong battery, and a num- 
ber of buildings for the security of our supplies, in addition to some 
respectable works for their protection. We have mounted a respect- 
able battery, two pieces of which are long eighteen-pounders, with 
which we could batter or burn down the city of Matamoras, should it 
become necessary to do so. When our field-work is completed, 
(which will soon be the case,) and mounted with its proper arma- 
ment, five hundred men could hold it against as many thousand 
Mexicans. During the twenty-seven days since our arrival here, a 
most singular state of things has prevailed all through the outlines of 
the two armies, which, to a certain extent, have all the feelings as if 
there were actual war. Fronting each other for an extent of more 
than two miles, and within musket range, are batteries, shotted, and 
the officers and men, in many instances, waiting impatiently for orders 
to apply the matches, yet nothing has been done to provoke the firing 
of a gun, or any act of violence. 

" Matamoras, at the distance we are now from it, appears to cover 
a large extent of ground, with some handsome buildings ; but I would 
imagine the greater portion of them to be indifferent one-storied 
houses, with roofs of straw, and walls of mud or unburnt brick. 
During peace, the population is said to be five or six thousand, but 
it is now filled to overflowing with troops. Report says, from five to 
ten thousand, of all sorts, regular and militia. 

"Since writing the above, an engagement has taken place between 
a detachment of our cavalry and the Mexicans, in which we were 
worsted. So the war has actually commenced." 

While both stations were thus in momentary expectation of an 
attack, Captain Samuel Walker, with a small body of Texas rangers, 
reached Point Isabel. He was placed some distance west of the 
works, with orders to attempt the opening of a communication with 
General Taylor. His force was about seventy-five men, and with 
these he stationed himself in the open country. On the 28th, he ad- 
vanced further towards the river, hoping to meet with an opportunity 
of effecting the desired communication. On the road he suddenly 
encountered a large body of Mexicans, whom he estimated to have 
numbered fifteen hundred. Notwithstanding the disparity of force, 
the captain determined to meet the threatened attack ; and, placing 
his raw troops on the right, he ordered the whole command to take 
refuge in a neighbouring chaparral. Before these directions could 
be obeyed, the Mexicans opened their fire. This so frightened his 
new soldiers, that they broke and fled in confusion, and with the re- 



CAPTAIN WALKERS EXPEDITION. 



213 




59^ " " _ -. 
Captain Walker's Expedition on the 29th of April. 



mainder Walker was unable to make a stand. During the retreat, 
most of his troops were scattered, and he, with a few others, was 
pursued to within cannon range of Point Isabel. The victory had 
not been altogether bloodless to the Mexicans, since the captain sup- 
poses that at least thirty fell during the fifteen minutes that the en- 
gagement lasted. 

Although this affair proved the great danger of attempting any pass- 
age between the two camps, yet, undismayed by his somewhat un- 
favourable experience, and perhaps acting on his superior knowledge 
of Mexican character, Walker volunteered to reattempt the commu- 
nication, should he obtain four men to accompany him. The offer 
was considered, by nearly all the garrison, as one of madness ; but 
its very hopelessness acted as a charm to the daring spirits, who, by 
long association, knew well the captain's character. Six immediately 
volunteered, and succeeded in obtaining the major's sanction for the 
expedition. Walker and his little band started late on the 29th, and 
after passing many dangers, arrived safely at Taylor's position. 

The situation of the American army was now very critical. The 
river fort was open to an attack from an overwhelming host, who 
would be aided by the simultaneous efforts of all the batteries in 
Matamoras. It seemed almost hopeless that a handful of men could 
bear up against such odds ; but, even if this were the case, the enemy 



214 



CAMPAIGN ON THE RIO GRANDE. 



might still attain their object by a regular siege, there being, at tha 
time, but eight days' rations in camp. The country between Fort 
Brown and Point Isabel had been seized by a large force, and the 
latter was in hourly expectation of an attack. The Mexicans, by 
their rapid movements, and the continual influx of their troops at 
Matamoras, evinced a vigour and determination of resistance, that, to 
a great part of the American army, was totally unexpected. 

Intelligence of this crisis reached the United States early in May. 
The consequences were alarming. Men who had never taken any 
interest in public affairs, forgot for awhile their business, to gather 
information from the army. Anxiety and fear, for the gallant men, 
whose fate seemed almost inevitable, increased to painful intensity. 
Every pulse of feeling beat in sympathy for Taylor and his comrades. 
Volunteers and citizens assembled in every city, eager to rush to the 
rescue of their countrymen. It was the season which, in every great 
war, precedes the test battle between the two nations ; the movement 
on which hung the world's future estimation of our military charac- 
ter ; the point which, once turned, no subsequent action of the war, 
not even such a battle as that of Buena Vista, the taking of Vera 
Cruz, nor the capture of Mexico itself, could reproduce. 

ENERAL TAYLOR well knew that 
upon his conduct in this emergency 
depended in a great measure the spirit 
of the coming contest, as well as his 
own military credit. Three courses 
were before him, either to remain on 
the river and brave the enemy, while 
Major Munroe did the same, or to at- 
tempt the relief of Point Isabel ; or, 
lastly, to abandon his position, and 
fall back into Texas. The latter was 
utterly untenable, and the former would 
in a few days reduce his men to star- 
vation. There was then no honourable alternative, but marching 
to Point Isabel with a part of his force, and, after relieving it, to re- 
trace his route to the river fort. The attempt would leave his little 
garrison on the river surrounded by overwhelming numbers, and 
could be made only with a superior enemy before and behind. It 
was a daring one — but the time for cautious alternatives had passed 
away. 

On the 1st of May, at 4 o'clock P. M., General Taylor, with the 
main part of the army of occupation, left the river fort, in route for 
Point Isabel. He marched through the chaparral without meeting 




MEXICAN ACCOUNT OF TAYLOR'S RETREAT. 215 

the enemy, and entering the broad rolling prairie, continued moving 
until midnight. Although the men were greatly fatigued, they were 
obliged to sleep under arms, without tents or fires. The march was 
resumed on the 2d, and the army, after suffering greatly from heat 
and want of water, reached Point Isabel at noon. 

This march afforded opportunity for the long pending war storm 
to burst. The enemy fondly imagined that it had been occasioned 
by the fear of the American general, and the joy of both soldiery and 
citizens was extravagant and indecent. Opinions similar to the fol- 
lowing, [from El Monitor Republicano, May 4th,] filled the papers of 
Matamoras : 

" General Taylor dared not resist the valour and enthusiasm of the 
sons of Mexico. Well did he foresee the intrepidity with which our 
soldiers would rush against the usurpers of the national territory. 
Well did he know the many injuries which were to be avenged by 
those who had taken up arms, not to aggrandize themselves with 
the spoils of the property of others, but to maintain the independence 
of their country. Well did he know, we repeat it, that the Mexicans 
would be stopped neither by trenches, nor fortresses, nor large artil- 
lery. Thus it was that the chief of the American forces, frightened 
as soon as he perceived, from the situation and proximity of his 
camp, that our army was preparing to cross the river, left with pre- 
cipitation for Point Isabel, with almost all his troops, eight pieces of 
artillery, and a few wagons. Their march was observed from our 
position, and the most excellent General D. Francisco Mejia imme- 
diately sent an express extraordinary to communicate the news to the 
most excellent general-in-chief. Here let me pay to our brave men 
the tribute which they deserve. The express verbally informed some 
troops which had not yet arrived at the ford, of the escape of the 
Americans ; in one instant all the soldiers spontaneously crossed the 
river, almost racing one with another. 

" Such was the ardour with which they crossed the river to attack 
the enemy. The terror and haste with which the latter fled to the 
fort, to shut themselves up in it and avoid a conflict, frustrated the 
active measures of the most excellent Senor General Arista, which 
were to order the cavalry to advance in the plain, and to cut off the 
flight of the fugitives. But it was not possible to do so, notwith- 
standing their forced march during the night. General Taylor left 
his camp at two o'clock in the afternoon, and, as fear has wings, he 
succeeded in shutting himself up in the fort. When our cavalry 
reached the point where they were to detain him, he had already 
passed and was several leagues ahead. Great was the sorrow of our 
brave men, not to have been able to meet the enemy face to face. 



216 CAMPAIGN ON THE RIO GRANDE. 

Their defeat was certain, and the main body of that invading army, 
who thought that they had inspired the Mexicans with so much re- 
spect, would have disappeared in the first important battle. But 
there was some fighting to be done, and the Americans do not know 
how to use other arms but those of duplicity and treachery. Why 
did they not remain with firmness under their colours? Why did 
they abandon the ground which they pretend to usurp with such ini- 
quity ? Thus has an honourable general kept his word. Had not 
General Taylor said in all his communications, that he was prepared 
to repel all hostilities ? Why, then, does he fly in so cowardly a 
manner to shut himself up at the point ? The commander-in-chief 
of the American army has covered himself with opprobrium and 
ignominy in sacrificing a part of his forces, whom he left in the forti- 
fications, to save himself; for it is certain that he will not return to 
their assistance — not that he is ignorant of their peril, but he calcu- 
lates that his would be greater if he had the temerity of attempting 
to resist the Mexican lances and bayonets in the open plain." 

The American commander had left, at the river fort, the 7th regi- 
ment of infantry, Bragg's battery, Captain Lord with his company, 
and an eighteen-pound battery, the whole commanded by Major 
Jacob Brown. He was instructed to expend as little ammunition as 
possible, to fire the eighteen-pounders at regular intervals, in case of 
being surrounded, and on no account to attempt offensive operations. 

Before daylight of May 3d, a battery of seven guns, stationed at 
Matamoras, began a steady cannonade upon the American works. 
The garrison were soon in a condition for resisting, and in a few 
moments the eighteen-pounders were driving their heavy masses into 
the heart of the city. This continued a quarter of an hour, when 
the Mexican guns ceased, and were succeeded by volleys of shells 
and shot from a fort below Matamoras. This was afterwards joined 
by a mortar battery, and the connonade continued, with but little 
interruption, until night. An American officer, speaking of this first 
day's attack, says : — " My station being in one of the batteries oppo- 
site the fort, I could sometimes hear the shot crashing through the 
houses. Our guns stopped firing about ten or eleven o'clock, as we 
were only wasting our ammunition, and did but little injury, except 
to the town. They kept on firing through the day and part of the 
night, but have done us little injury, one man only being killed. 
They have a mortar, and annoy us considerably with their shells, 
several of which have exploded in the fort, but with no serious in- 
jury. We are hourly expecting an attack from their forces, and are 
prepared to make a vigorous defence." 

The Mexicans gave their own version of this affair. The silence 



BOMBARDMENT OF FORT BROWN. 217 

of the American guns was construed into the result of fear, and the 
annihilation of the invading army was triumphantly predicted. The 
journal formerly quoted, says : 

" The enemy, in their impotent rage, and before they concealed 
their shame behind the most distant parapets, had the barbarous plea- 
sure of aiming their guns towards the city to destroy its edifices, as it 
was not in their power to destroy the fortifications from which they 
received so much injury. This wicked revenge, which only springs 
from cowardly and miserable souls, did not meet with the success 
expected by those who so unworthily adorn themselves with the title 
of savants and philanthropists. Their stupidity was equal to their 
wickedness. Almost all the balls passed too high ; and those which 
touched the houses, although they were eighteen-pounders, did not 
cause any other mischief but that of piercing one or two walls. If 
those who conceived the infamous design of destroying Matamoras 
had seen the contemptuous laughter with which the owners of those 
houses showed their indifference for the losses which they might sus- 
tain, they would have admired the patriotism and disinterestedness 
of the Mexicans, always ready to undergo the greatest sacrifices, 
when it is necessary to maintain their nationality and independence. 
The glorious 3d of May is another brilliant testimony of this truth ; 
through the thickest of the firing, one could remark the most ardent 
enthusiasm on all faces, and hardly had a ball fallen, when even the 
children would look for it, without fearing that another aimed in the 
same manner should fall in the same place. That, we saw ourselves, 
in the public square, where a multitude of citizens were assembled. 

" The triumph of our arms has been complete ; and we have only 
to lament the loss of a sergeant and two artillerymen, who fell glori- 
ously in fighting for their country. The families of those victims 
ought to be taken care of by the supreme government, to whose 
paternal gratitude they have been recommended by the most excel- 
lent senor general-in-chief. We must also be consoled by the 
thought, that the blood of these brave men has been revenged by 
their bereaved companions. As many of our balls passed through 
the embrasure, the loss to the Americans must be very great ; and, 
although we do not know exactly the number of their dead, the most 
accurate information makes it amount to fifty-six. It is probable that 
such is the case. Since eleven o'clock in the morning, the abandonment 
of their guns, merely because two of them were dismounted, and the 
others were uncovered ; the panic-terror with which, in all haste, they 
took refuge in their furthest intrenchments, taking away from the camp 
all that could suffer from the attack of our artillery ; the destruction 
which must have been occasioned by the bombs, so well aimed, that 
T 28 



'213 CAMPAIGN ON THE RIO GRANDE. 

some would burst at a yard's distance from the ground, in their de- 
scent to the point at which they were to fall ; every thing contributes 
to persuade that, indeed, the enemy have suffered a terrible loss. If 
it were not the case, if they preserved some remnant of valour, why 
did they not dare to repair their fortifications in the night ? It is true 
that, from time to time, a few guns were fired on them in the night, 
but their aim could not be certain, and cowardice alone could force 
them not to put themselves in an attitude to return the fire which was 
poured on them again at daylight. No American put out his head ; 
silence reigned in their camp ; and for this reason we have suspended 
our fire to-day — that there is no enemy to meet our batteries." 

A little before three o'clock, A.M., of the 4th, a small party appeared 
before the fort, and on being hailed, announced themselves as " Cap- 
tain Walker and friends from Frontone," [Point Isabel.] They were 
admitted, and the captain delivered to the commandant some de- 
spatches from General Taylor; but although he was anxious to return, 
it was found impossible to do so during the day. The enemy did not 
renew their fire until the 5th, an interval which the Americans im- 
proved by finishing the defences of their fort, and providing, as much 
as possible, against the effects of the hostile batteries. Daylight of 
the morning following, disclosed a new battery, in a field east of the 
Rio Grande ; and during the whole of that day troops concentrated 
around and near it. The Americans expected an assault, especially 
as the army in Matamoras appeared to be uncommonly active. In 
the afternoon, the new battery, together with those in Matamoras, 
opened upon the garrison, who answered, with the six-pound howit- 
zers. The enemy, however, evidently meditated an assault, since 
they soon ceased firing, and commenced hovering before the works, 
as though selecting a point of attack. While this was going on, 
Lieutenant Hanson obtained the major's permission to sally into the 
country, with a small party, in order to reconnoiter. His manceuverings 
soon attracted the notice of the Mexicans, who made several attempts 
to surround and cut him off; but he completed his intended obser- 
vations, escaped his opponents, and returned to the fort. The enemy 
then spread themselves so as completely to surround the Americans ; 
and Major Brown ordered his signal guns to be fired, in order to 
apprize General Taylor of his being besieged. 

Before daylight of the 6th, all the Mexican batteries were in full 
blast, and red hot shells and shot poured into the fort in one uninter- 
rupted stream. The Americans did not reply, on account of the 
small quantity of ammunition, which it was their desire to retain, in 
order to meet the expected assault. At ten o'clock, the major, while 
superintending some new defences, was struck by a cannon shot, 



DEATH OF MAJOR BROWN. 



219 




Major Brown mortally wounded. 



whicn tore away a portion of his right leg, and rendered amputation 
necessary. He was carried to a small bomb-proof, and lived long 
enough to hear the report of his general's cannon at Resaca de la 
Palma. His loss was at that time severely felt ; and General Taylor, 
in noticing his noble defence of the fort, has the following language : 
" The field-work opposite Matamoras has sustained itself handsomely 
during a cannonade and bombardment of one hundred and sixty 
hours. But the pleasure is alloyed with profound regret at the loss 
of its heroic and indomitable commander, Major Brown, who died 
to-day from the effects of a shell. His loss would be a severe one to 
the service at anytime, but to the army under my orders, it is indeed 
irreparable." In consequence of this accident, the command of the 
fort devolved on Captain Hawkins. 

The fire from the hostile batteries continued until noon, when it 
ceased for two hours. A dull fire then commenced from a single 
battery, during which, parties of the enemy approached near enough 
to be fired upon by the garrison. The firing continued until five 
o'clock, when the Mexicans sounded a parley, and two officers ap- 
proached the fort, bearing a white flag. They were met by Major 
Sewell and Lieutenant Britton, and delivered the following message 
from General Arista : 

"You are besieged by forces sufficient to take you, and there is, 
moreover, a numerous division encamped near you, which, free from 
other cares, will keep off any succours which you may expect to 
receive. 

" The respect for humanity acknowledged at the present age by all 



220 CAMPAIGN ON, THE RIO GRANDE. 

civilized nations, doubtless imposes upon me the duty of mitigating 
the disasters of war. 

" This principle, which Mexicans observe above all other nations, 
obliges me to summon you, as all your efforts will be useless, to sur- 
render, in order to avoid, by a capitulation, the entire destruction of 
all the soldiers under your command. 

" You will thus afford me the pleasure of complying with the mild 
and benevolent wishes above expressed, which distinguish the cha- 
racter of my countrymen, whilst I at the same time fulfil the most 
imperious of the duties which my country requires for the offences 
committed against it." 

Some difficulty was experienced by the captain in translating this 
paper, owing to his interpreter's scanty knowledge of Spanish ; but 
its meaning being understood, he called a council of officers, and 
asked the opinion of each, beginning at the youngest. They unani- 
mously resolved to defend the place to the last extremity. In a short 
time Captain Hawkins sent the following answer : 

"Sir — Your humane communication has just been received, and 
after the consideration due to its importance, I must respectfully 
decline to surrender my forces to you. 

" The exact purport of your despatch I cannot feel confident that 
I understand, as my interpreter is not skilled in your language ; but 
if I have understood you correctly, you have my reply above." 

On the reception of this reply, Arista opened his batteries with 
more activity than before ; and during this and the following day the 
cannonade continued. On the evening of the 7th, Captain Mansfield 
and a few others were sent to the plain to level a traverse formerly 
erected by the Americans, and which now afforded protection to the 
enemy. This he accomplished, and succeeded in returning without 
being attacked. The Americans passed the night expecting every 
moment an attack. At twelve o'clock, the sound of bugles, and 
firing of muskets, aroused the garrison, and each man was ordered 
to his post. No attack was made, and they passed the day as they 
had done others, until late in the afternoon, when a heavy cannonade 
was heard in the direction of Point Isabel. All knew whence it pro- 
ceeded — that General Taylor had met the enemy, and was now 
striving against immense odds. In the excitement, military order 
was forgotten, and leaping on the parapets, amid the thick shot of 
the enemy, the officers sent up one deafening shout, that echoed up 
and down the shores of the Bravo. Then with painful anxiety, each 
one listened for a repetition, and as the noise of the tumult grew 
louder and louder, each one's feelings were wound up to the highest 
pitch. Toward evening a Mexican deserter reached the fort, and 



EXCITEMENT AT FORT BROWN. 221 

reported that General Taylor had had an engagement with Arista, at 
Palo Alto. All night the soldiers were in a state of restless excite- 
ment ; so that when the cannonade from Matamoras was renewed on 
the 9th, it received little attention. Late in the afternoon of that day, 
the general's cannon were again heard, and before sunset, masses of 
fugitives broke through the adjacent chaparral, and dashed madly 
toward the river. Then the last sound of cannon died within the 
city, and following it, arose one wild shout of victory from the littl ? 
garrison. The long guns of the fort were turned upon the crowd of 
fugitives, but with little effect. 

The defence of Fort Brown is one of the most glorious achievements 
performed during the Mexican war. It should be remembered that 
at that time the courage of the enemy had not been tested, and an 
American would advance to engage a superior foe, with much less 
grounds of confidence than after he had, by a number of battles, 
proved himself invincible. Major Brown had but one infantry com- 
pany, and was deficient in provisions, ammunition, tents, and conve- 
niences. Yet this little handful toiled bravely on, night and day, 
for more than a week against entire armies, and even after the loss 
of their commander ; and from them Mexico was taught that she 
had to deal with such a foe as she had never encountered before. 





Fort Brown. 




CHAPTER XI. 



BATTLE OF PALO ALTO. 




ENERAL TAYLOR, as has been 
mentioned, reached Point Isabel 
on the day after his departure from 
the river fort, without having seen 
the enemy. This was to him 
somewhat unexpected, and it con- 
vinced him that the first attack would 
be made upon the fort, opposite Mata- 
moras. The opinion was soon con- 
firmed. Before reveille, on the morn- 
ing of May 3d, the heavy sound of 
cannon came rolling from the west. 
Instantly the whole camp was in ex- 
citement, each one eager to march to the relief of his comrades. 
About the same time, Captain Walker, who had been on a scout the 
(222) 



Taylor's order. 223 

preceding evening, returned and reported the enemy encamped in 
the country in great force, and evidently awaiting the return of the 
Americans. He had fallen in with their picket guard and fired 
upon it. 

On receiving this news, General Taylor determined to march to the 
relief of the fort, and issued orders for the troops to inarch at one 
o'clock ; but he subsequently changed his mind and decided on 
communicating with the garrison. Captain Walker was selected for 
this dangerous service. Captain May, with about one hundred dra- 
goons including ten rangers, formed an escort. The latter were to 
proceed towards the river fort, and on reaching the chaparral near it, 
to conceal themselves, until Walker could visit the fort and return. 
They started late in the afternoon, and at nine o'clock came in sight 
of the enemy's camp-fires at Palo Alto. May eluded observation, 
passed round the entire circuit of the Mexican camp, and arrived 
within seven miles of the river fort. Here he concealed his men, 
while Captain Walker, with the ten rangers, rode towards the fort. 
As has already been stated, the latter officer was unable to return 
until the following night ; so that May, supposing he had been cap- 
tured, set out at daylight on a full gallop for Point Isabel. When 
within twelve miles of it, he met and charged one hundred and fifty 
lancers, pursuing them three miles. He reached the point at nine 
o'clock. 

The supposed fate of young Walker excited considerable sensation 
among the soldiers, he being a universal favourite. But, to the great 
joy of all, he returned on the 5th, bringing with him the gratifying 
intelligence that all was well at the fort. He had passed through 
numerous dangers in returning, as the enemy were aware of his move- 
ments, and had sent out numerous parties to intercept him. Nothing 
but his intimate knowledge of the road, and admirable presence of 
mind, could have enabled him to escape them. 

General Taylor now resolved to march to the assistance of the fort, 
and during the whole of the 6th, the soldiers were preparing for the 
movement. On the 7th, the commander issued the following cha- 
racteristic order: 

" The army will march to-day, at three o'clock, in the direction of 
Matamoras. It is known the enemy has recently occupied the route 
in force. If still in possession, the general will give him battle. 
The commanding general has every confidence in his officers and 
men. If his orders and instructions are carried out, he has no doubt 
of the result, let the enemy meet him in what numbers they may 
He wishes to enjoin upon the battalions of infantry, that their main 
dependence must be in the bayonet." 



224 



BATTLE OF PALO ALTO. 




Soldiers Drinking. 



At three o'clock, P. M.,the army commenced its march, accompa- 
nied by a large train, rich both in provisions and munitions of war. In 
the wagons were six twelve-pounders, and an additional battery of 
two eighteen-pounders was placed under the command of Lieutenan 
Churchill, of the artillery. The march across the lonely prairie pre- 
sented a singular and noble appearance. Long files of troops, in 
exact order, the flying artillery, heavy trains, wagons slowly moving 
by sluggish oxen, contrasting with the pomp and glitter of military 
array, all formed a picture never before witnessed by the wilds of 
Texas. After proceeding five miles, the army halted and encamped 
for the night. 

On the morning of the 8th, at an early hour, Captain Walker and 
his scouts reported the camp of the enemy deserted. The general 
supposed that they were retreating in order to avoid battle ; but this 
opinion proved incorrect. The march being resumed soon after sun- 
rise, the troops reached some thick mesquite and chaparral thickets, 
in emerging from which, the Mexican army broke upon their view, 
drawn up in battle array, and presenting a front of nearly a mile and 
a half. The sight filled each soldier with enthusiasm. Instead, how- 
ever, of leading them directly to the attack, the general deliberately 



FEAT OF LIEUTENANT BLAKE. 225 

formed them into columns, and then, grounding arms, permitted them 
to go, half at a time, to some neighbouring pools, to refresh them- 
selves, and fill their canteens. During this interval, a daring feat 
was performed by an American officer, Lieutenant Blake. The ac- 
count we give, with some little alteration, from one who shared the 
adventure. 

" After the line of battle had been formed, General Taylor rode 
along it to survey the command. Every man was perfectly cool. At 
this time the general did not know whether the enemy had any artil- 
lery or not, as the long grass prairie prevented him from distinguish- 
ing it, when masked by men in front of the pieces. To obtain this 
knowledge was an all-important point, and Captain May was ordered 
to go forward with his squadron, reconnoiter the enemy, and, if pos- 
sible, draw a fire from their artillery. He accordingly advanced ; 
but the enemy appeared to take no notice of him. Lieutenant Blake 
then proposed to go forward alone, and reconnoiter. I was close to 
him," says our authority, " and volunteered to accompany him. He 
consented, and we dashed forward to within eighty yards of their 
line, the whole army looking on us with astonishment. Here we had 
a full view. The lieutenant alighted from his horse, and, with his 
glass, surveyed the whole line, and handed it to me. After making 
a similar observation, I returned the glass. Just then two officers 
rode out toward us. I mentioned it to Blake, and requested him to 
mount. He quietly told me to draw a pistol on them. I did so, and 
they halted. Had they thought proper, they could have fired a volley 
from their main line, and riddled us both. We then galloped along 
the line to its other end, there examined them again, and returned." 
The lieutenant reported accurately the entire artillery force of the 
enemy. 

Before this reconnoissance was completed, the army had commenced 
its march in the following order: On the extreme right, the 5th 
infantry, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Mcintosh ; Major Ring- 
gold's artillery ; 3d infantry, commanded by Captain L. M. Morris ; 
two eighteen-pounders, under Lieutenant Churchill, 3d artillery ; 
4th infantry, commanded by Major G. W. Allen ; the 3d and 4th 
regiments composed the 3d brigade, under command of Lieutenant- 
Colonel Garland, and all the above corps, together with two squad- 
rons of dragoons, under Captains Ker and May, composed the right 
wing, under the orders of Colonel Twiggs. The left was formed by 
the battalion of artillery commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Childs, 
Captain Duncan's light battery, and the 8th infantry, under Captain 
Montgomery, all forming the 1st brigade, under the command of 
Lieutenant- Colonel Belknap. The train was parked near the water, 

29 



226 



BATTLE OF PALO ALTO. 




"V3 



under direction of Captains Crossman and Myers, and protected by 
Captain Ker's squadron. 

IEUTENANT BLAKE had scarcely 
joined the army when the enemy 
opened their batteries, which were 
immediately answered by all the 
American artillery. The Mexican 
fire was increased by one gun after 
another, until their whole line was 
in an entire blaze, and the battle 
ground was enveloped in clouds 
of smoke. Both armies had re- 
solved on victory, and both be- 
haved in a manner which showed 
that they deserved it. But, unfor- 
tnately for the Mexicans, they aimed many of their pieces too high, 
and pointed others at their opponents' guns instead of their men. 
Their first fire, therefore, did little execution; while Ringgold's and 
Churchill's artillery soon dispersed the cavalry proceeding against 
them, and Captain Duncan mowed down scores of their infantry. 
Captain May's squadron of dragoons supported the latter. 

After the artillery had led the battle for some time, about one 
thousand Mexican cavalry, with two field-pieces, were observed 
moving through the chaparral on the American right, either to attack 
that flank, or to make an attempt upon the train. The 5th infantry, 
being detached to repel this movement, threw themselves into squares, 
and firmly waited an attack. They were supported by Lieutenant 
Ridgely, with a section of Ringgold's artillery, and Captain Walker's 
company of volunteers. The enemy rn'iied on in one dense mass ; 
but soon the artillery was ploughing through their ranks, crushing 
man and horse beneath its powerful track, and overwhelming the sur- 
vivors in utter confusion. With terrible grandeur the battle was now 
raging over the entire field ; companies were wheeling and manoeu- 
vering ; cavalry charging ; artillery galloping from point to point ; 
while amid the confused din of cannon, and shouts, and trampling 
steeds, was heard occasionally the wailings of the wounded, or deep 
groans of the dying. 

The continued discharges of artillery fired the grass of the prairie, 
which was, at that season, as dry as chaff. The flame, small at first, 
spread rapidly on every side, until sheets of fire, accompanied by 
thick smoke, shot along the surface, and at length, growing fiercer 
as it continued, the whole space between the two armies was covered 
by one wide ocean of fire, that went tossing and roaring up to heaven. 



RINGGOLD WOUNDED. 



229 




Repulse of the Mexican Cavalry at Palo Alto. 



The sounds of strife were lost, and both armies suspended the work 
of death. General Taylor availed himself of the interval by forming 
a new line. The eighteen-pounders were ordered to the position 
first occupied by the Mexican cavalry, while the 1st brigade occu- 
pied a new position to the left of the battery. The 5th was advanced 
from its former position, and occupied a point on the extreme right 
of the new line. Meanwhile the enemy had made a similar change 
of position, and after the lapse of an hour the action recommenced. 
In a little time the fire from the American guns grew most destruc- 
tive. But, although long openings were made in their ranks at every 
discharge, yet they sustained the severe cannonade with a constancy 
that astonished their antagonists. May's squadron was despatched to 
make a demonstration on their left ; but, the ground being unfavour- 
able to the movements of cavalry, the captain suffered considerably 
from the enemy's artillery, without effecting his object. The 4th 
infantry, which had been ordered to support the eighteen-pound bat- 
tery, was also exposed to a galling fire, by which several men were 
killed, and Captain Page was severely wounded. But the enemy's 
principal efforts were directed against the eighteen-pounders, and the 
guns under Major Ringgold. Round these swept a storm of iron hail, 
which picked off the men one by one, and rattled fearfully along the 
American cannon. Here Ringgold received his death wound. He 
was mounted at the time, and the shot struck him at right angles, 
entering the right thigh, passing through the holsters and upper part 



230 



BATTLE OF PALO ALTO. 




of the shoulders of his horse, and then striking the left thigh in the 
same line. A large mass of muscles and integuments were carried 
away from each thigh, but the arteries were not divided, nor the 
bones broken. During the whole day he had managed his artillery 
in a masterly manner, directing his shot not only to groups and 
masses of the enemy, but even to particular men. He saw them fall, 
their places occupied by others, and they in turn shot down, as he 
still pointed his guns to the same place, feeling as confident of his 
mark as though using a rifle. 

IEUTENANT-COLONEL CHILDS'S 
battalion moved up to support the ar- 
tillery on the right. It was followed 
by a strong body of cavalry, which, 
notwithstanding a severe fire from 
the eighteen-pounders, prepared to 
charge. The battalion was formed 
in square, in order to meet the 
attack ; but when the advancing 
squadrons were within close range, 
a fire of canister was opened upon 
them with withering effect, and soon 
they were in full retreat. A brisk fire of small arms was now 
opened upon the square, by which Lieutenant Luther was wounded; 
but a well-directed fire from the front of the square silenced all fur- 
ther opposition in that quarter. 

While these events were transpiring on the right, the Mexicans 
had made a serious attempt against the American left. Lieutenant 
Duncan met this by a masterly movement, which largely contributed 
to the final success. Under cover of the smoke, he moved rapidly 
round to the enemy's right, and then, suddenly unlimbering, poured 
in a galling enfilade fire upon their flank. Shells and shrapnell shot 
told with murderous effect, and in an instant the enemy's masses 
were in disorder. A charge of cavalry at' this moment would have 
swept the whole field ; but, as such a movement would have endan- 
gered the train, the American general wisely forebore. As night 
approached, the fire of the enemy slackened, and it ceased on both 
sides with the setting of the sun. The Americans lay all night upon 
their arms, on nearly the same position that the enemy had occupied 
in the morning. 

The total force of the Americans in the battle of Palo Alto was 
two thousand two hundred and eighty-eight, including one hundred 
and seven officers, but a portion of this force took no part in the 
Dattle. The loss was nine killed, forty-four wounded, and two miss- 



MEXICAN LOSSES. 



231 




Major Ringgold. 

ing. The force of the Mexicans, according to the statements of their 
own officers, was not less than six thousand regular troops, with a 
large irregular force, and ten pieces of artillery. "Their loss," says 
General Taylor, " was not less than two hundred killed, and four 
hundred wounded — probably greater. This estimate is very mode- 
rate, and formed upon the number actually counted on the field, and 
upon the reports of their own officers."* 



• The havoc committed by our artillerists, amid the densely crowded masses of the 
enemy was indeed terrible. When the Americans passed the battle-field on the 9th, 
they found heaps and groups lying piled upon each other, in every imaginable position, 
and mangled in every possible manner. The prairie was in many places dyed with 
streams of blood for several yards, and where the grass had been burnt, carcasses of men 
and horses blackened with fire and blood caused the hearts of the victors to recoil within 
them. The efficiency of the flying artillery, so remarkably shown in these battles of the 
8th and 9th of May, became more and more conspicuous in the subsequent actions 
of the war. Major Ringgold, who fell at the battle of Palo Alto, is entitled to the per- 
petual remembrance and gratitude of his countrymen, for his exertions in contributing to 
bring this efficient arm of the service into so high a state of discipline. 




CHAPTER XII. 



BATTLE OF RESACA DE LA PALMA. 



URING the night the two armies slept 
quietly, almost in sight of each other. 
The night was serene and beautiful, 
the moon casting a soft light on every 
thing around ; and but for the groans 
of the wounded, and the screams of 
those suffering under the knife of the 
surgeon, no one could have imagined 
the scenes which had occurred during 
the day. The first care of General 
Taylor was to visit the wounded, and see 
that every comfort was supplied. But the constant and well-directed 
exertions of the medical department left him but little to do — every 
one, whether officer or soldier, having been attended to with unwa- 
vering care and watchfulness. 

A council of officers, held at night on the battle-field, having de- 
cided to go forward, General Taylor, early on the morning of the 
(232) 




POSITION OF THE MEXICANS. 233 

9th, formed his line of battle and moved forward. Far in the dis- 
tance was seen the enemy's host, moving slowly towards the chapar- 
ral which bounded a new of the eastern horizon. As the soldiers 
moved over the recent battle-field, many an eye was pained at the 
spectacles of misery lying thickly around. Where the artillery had 
performed its fearful office, men and horses shattered and mutilated, 
were lying thickly piled upon each other. The wolf and the vul- 
ture were revelling upon them, with whose screams were mingled 
the groans of many who through the whole night had writhed and 
moaned in the intensity of suffering. Arms, trappings, provisions, 
and clothing, strewed the field ; the prairie was red with blood ; and 
many a gallant spirit, whom the shock of battle could not daunt, felt 
sick and childlike as he gazed upon the wounded and dying on the 
field of battle. 

On approaching the chaparral, General Taylor became convinced 
that the enemy had occupied it in force. Another battle seemed in- 
evitable ; and to prepare for it the commander halted his troops near 
a convenient watering-place, where they were allowed a season of 
repose. Captain McCall, with some light companies under Captain 
C. F. Smith, and a select detachment, was ordered to advance and 
reconnoiter the enemy's position. They numbered about two hun- 
dred and twenty. Captain McCall, with the artillery and infantry, 
moved along the left of the road, Captain Smith on the right, while 
Captain Walker with some rangers was thrown in advance, and Lieu- 
tenant Pleasanton, with the 2d dragoons, brought up the rear. Walker 
charged a party of Mexicans, killing one and capturing another. 
McCall entered the chaparral, and perceived other parties of infantry 
with some cavalry. These were fired upon by Captain Smith. On 
reaching the borders of a ravine, known as Resaca de la Palma, 
Captain McCall was met by a discharge from a concealed battery, 
which killed or wounded three of his men, and drove the remainder 
into the thicket. At the same time Lieutenant Dobbins was charged 
by some cavalry, and fired upon from the battery, and after a slight 
skirmish his men were defeated. McCall now collected his command, 
and placing them in a strong position, sent three dragoons to inform 
General Taylor that the enemy were in front. 

The position chosen by the enemy for the second day's battle was 
a most admirable one for defensive warfare. The ravine known as 
Resaca de la Palma, is nearly two hundred feet wide, and four feet 
deep. It is crossed at right angles, by the road to Matamoras. The 
ridges on each side are covered with dense rows of chaparral, utterly 
impenetrable to horse, and defying every weapon save the bayonet. 
In the thicket nearest the Americans, as well as in the ravine below, 
u2 . 30 



234 



BATTLE OF RESACA DE LA PALM A. 




the enemy lay in double rows ; and another line of them extended 
through the chaparral on the opposite bank. Three batteries were placed 
so as completely to sweep the road, their fires at the same time 
crossing each other. Through such a pass, defended by six,thousand 
veteran soldiers, must Taylor's little army of less than two thousand 
men pass. In this respect, the battle-field of the 9th presented a 
marked contrast to that of Palo Alto, where, as we have seen, each 
army was drawn up in open space, and thus every opportunity afforded 
for manceuvering. We will find a consequent difference in the mode 
of conducting the attack — the engagement of Palo Alto being almost 
entirely of artillery ; that of Resaca de la Palma, depended on other 
and more decisive weapons. 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE BATTLE. 



235 




cCALL'S message reached the 
general at about three in the af- 
ternoon. He detached the 8th 
regiment with Duncan's battery, 
and Colonel Child's artillery bri- 
gade, to protect the wagon train, 
which was ordered to be imme- 
diately parked. Ridgely's bat- 
tery, with three regiments of artil- 
lery, were pushed forward against 
the enemy's infantry ; and at four 
o'clock Captains McCall and Smith 
were ordered to bring on the action. 

Captain Ridgely moved carefully along the road, until within sight 
of the enemy. Being then met with a heavy discharge from one of 
their batteries, he rushed forward at full speed, until within a con- 
venient distance, when the heavy roll of his artillery answering that 
of the enemy, announced the battle begun. He was seconded by 
the 5th infantry, and part of the 4th, and soon long streams of shot 
were flying between the armies, amid reports that shook the lonely 
ravine for miles around, and echoed back to the shores of the Rio 
Grande. A few minutes after, Captain McCall engaged the Mexican 
right wing. Soon the action became general. Through the smoke 
of battle, companies might be seen gliding like phantoms from one 
position to another, discharging rapid volleys of shot, or meeting the 
charges of cavalry. The artillery cut and mowed its way through 
entire regiments; and so terribly did Ridgely's batteries operate 
upon the lancers, that for awhile they were obliged to retire beyond 
its reach. So rapid were th,e discharges of the Mexican artillery 
that no interval could be distinguished between them ; and but that 
they aimed too high, the American batteries would have been com 
pletely swept. 

The 3d and 4th regiments were obliged to form in the ravine, in 
full view of the Mexicans, and exposed to their concentrated fires. 
Duncan's battery was on the edge, but in a position from whence he 
could not fire without injury to the two regiments. Still the action 
raged with a fierceness never before known in Mexican warfare. 
The best soldiers of the republic, most of whom had grown gray in 
her numerous wars, and who had formerly carried every field on 
which they fought, were now contending for mastery in a position 
chosen by themselves. But at length superior discipline prevailed. 
Gradually, inch by inch, they were driven with the bayonet through 
the chaparral, and forced to take refuge in a more distant position 



236 



BATTLE OF RESACA DE LA PAL MA. 



Yet the strife did not cease. Still the ravine batteries poured into 
the heart of the American infantry, storms of iron hail, that mowed 
down scores, while on the very verge of victory. Here the vete- 
rans of Tampico had taken their stand, and though the guns were 
surrounded by the dead and dying, maintained their position with an 
obstinacy worthy of victory. 

As the fate of battle hung upon these guns, General Taylor sent 
for Captain May to report himself for duty. On his appearing, the 
general ordered him to charge the enemy's batteries. May, turning 
to his men, ordered them to follow, and then the whole command 
swept down the road towards the ravine. On arriving at Ridgely's 
position, they paused until that officer drew the enemy's fire ; and 
then the artillery, being cleared from the road, the intrepid dragoons, 
with their leader ahead, dashed forward into the ravine. Then, with- 
out pause, they swept on towards the batteries. 

APTAIN MAY, when nearly touching 
the muzzles of the cannon, turned to 
encourage his men, but at that moment 
a blast from the batteries cut down 
seven men and eighteen horses, seve- 
ral of the former being whirled into the 
very midst of the Mexicans. But un- 
dismayed by this sickening sight, the 
remainder sprang over the guns, 
charged through the cannoneers, and 
reforming, returned with resistless 
force. The Mexicans were scattered, 
but in a few minutes they had again 
rallied, and with fixed bayonets re- 
turned to the shock. Throwing themselves furiously between their 
guns, they wielded their swords and bayonets hand to hand with the 
cavalry. One by one they sunk beneath the superior weapons ; yet 
even when their regiment was crushed and broken, a Mexican en- 
deavoured to sustain its honour by wrapping its flag about him in 
order to bear it away. He was ridden down by the dragoons, and 
himself and flag captured — the latter being subsequently sent to 
Congress Hall, at Washington. General La Vega was among the 
prisoners. He was struck at by May in the first charge, but parrying 
the blow, he called his troops around him, and was on the point of 
discharging a cannon, when the captain galloped back and ordered 
him to surrender. On ascertaining May's rank, he delivered his 
sword, and was afterwards conducted to General Taylor. 

Although May had silemf.d the guns, he found it impossible for 




SECOND CHARGE OF MAY. 



239 




Flag of the Tampico Battalion. 



his small command to retain them. The Mexican infantry concen- 
trated in one mass, and charging with their bayonets, gained posses- 
sion of the batteries, and prepared for a fearful struggle. The 5th 
regiment rushed against them, and after passing through a terrible 
fire, reached the guns, and crossed bayonets with their gallant foe. 
They were encouraged by Lieutenant-Colonel Payne, aid to the com- 
mander, as well as by their own officers. The struggle was long 
and bloody. May charged a gun with but five men. The 8th in- 
fantry, under Colonel Belknap, advanced to his assistance, their 
leader bearing a standard in front through a storm of musketry. As 
his soldiers closed with the Tampico troops, the conflict became 
more terrible than it had been before, and the wild shouts and impre- 
cations of infuriated thousands wrestling for victory, with every pas- 
sion aroused, united with the clashing of swords and bayonets, and 
formed a scene alike exciting and terrible. Colonel Belknap was 
thrown from his horse, and the command devolved on Captain Mont- 
gomery. Some of the troops fought breast deep in water, while others 
cut down the chaparral with their swords, in order to afford their com- 
rades an opportunity to enter. Lieutenant-Colonel Mcintosh, while 
charging through the thicket, was surrounded by a number of Mexi- 
cans, his horse killed, and he himself wounded by a bayonet, which 



240 



BATTLE OF RESACA DE LA PAL 



MA. 




Americans entering Arista's camp. 

entered his mouth and passed through under his ear. Another bayo- 
^entered his arm, and a third his hip. He was, however, finally 

At this time, a party under Lieutenants Woods, Hays, Cochrane 
and Anger, came unexpectedly upon the camp of General Arista' 
After seizing it, they were astonished at beholding a Mexican office,' 
approach very near their position. As he appeared to be recot 
noitering, a volley of musketry was discharged at him, but he escaped 
unhurt. On repeating his daring feat, he was again fired at, and 
again escaped; and even after a third discharge, he rode 'away 
unhurt. His object was soon known. At the head of a body of Ian- 
cers he came rushing down upon the party, heedless of a shower of 
musketry, drove the Americans into the chaparral, and killed Lieu- 
tenant Cochrane. 

This was the enemy's last triumph. Their rout had already begun 
and soon hving masses of infantry, dragoons, and rancheros, wle' 
breaking through the chaparral and rushing towards the Rio Grande 
Hundreds were trodden down by their own forces, while, as the fori- 
tives came within range of the river fort, its garrison, with loud 
shouts, opened a fire upon them with the eighteen-pounders, sending 
showers of grape to second the discharges from the main army 

Meanwhile thousands of Mexicans-parents, wives, and sis'ters- 
lined the shores of the Rio Grande, with feelings which none may 
experience save those whose all hangs suspended on the fate of battle 
Arista had reported a victory on the previous day; but the roar of 



ROUT OF THE MEXICANS. 



24i 




ssS^Mw^. 



Rout of tlie Mexicans. 



cannon, swelling louder, and fiercer, and nearer, seemed to be ill 
results of a triumph. As anxiety deepened into racking intensity, 
the bombardment of the American fort ceased ; cheering was sup- 
pressed, and pale, terror-stricken faces, gazed silently towards the 
east. In a little while their routed army came dashing through the 
thicket, treading each other down, as they hurried on to gain the 
river bank. Terror and eager haste were depicted in the counte- 
nances of the fugitives, as they poured onward to the shore. All 
distinction of rank was lost in the common sense of extreme dansrer. 
The terrible Americans of the north were in the rear, the city of refuge 
in front. Then Matamoras rang with a cry, such as she had never 
heard before — one of misery and despair. Only one little flatboat 
lay near the shore ; but into this crowds of the soldiers hurried, push- 
ing each other off, or falling headlong from the banks to a watery 
grave. " Mules, loaded with wounded and dying, were plunged in, 
and numbers were precipitated from the shore. It was an awful 
scene. Horse trampled over horse, crushing their riders to the earth, 
and trailing their bridles and furniture along the ground. The river 
X 31 



242 BATTLE OF RESACA DE LA P A L M A. 

was foaming with life, while plunge after plunge announced the sad 
fate of numbers more. The shouts of officers, curses of soldiery, yells 
of the wounded, and shrieks of the drowning, were appalling. 
Wretched beings grasped the flatboat in agony, only to be murdered 
by those upon it ; and scores of mules, and hundreds of soldiers, 
clenched in each other's embrace, sunk to a watery grave. 

" Yet, d eadful as was this scene, it was but the shadow of what 
Matamoras witnessed during the night. Mules were continually en- 
tering the city, laden with wounded, whose piercing shrieks, as their 
wounds bled afresh at each step, rose above the din and hurry of 
trampling armies. All discipline and order was at an end, and thou- 
sands of infuriated soldiers poured along the streets for rapine and 
plunder. Women fled to the ball rooms, where preparations for vic- 
tory had been made, and tore the wreaths and ornaments from the 
walls. Scarcely had they done so when scores of lawless rancheros 
burst upon them in the hurry of uncontrollable passion. Crime and 
debauchery revelled that night in the halls of Matamoras. 

"Most of the inhabitants expected an assault by General Taylor, 
and therefore seized a few of their most valuable effects, and fled 
into the country. But the evil spirit was there also, and the unfortu- 
nate exiles were iobbed and murdered in the plains, or passes of the 
mountains. Matamoras suffered more that day from her own citi- 
zens, than from the sword of the enemy."* 

"The strength of our marching force on this day," says General 
Taylor, " was one hundred and seventy-three officers, and two thou- 
sand and forty-nine men — aggregate, two thousand two hundred and 
twenty-two. The actual number engaged with the enemy did not 
exceed one thousand and seven hundred. Our loss was three officers 
killed and twelve wounded, thirty-six men killed and seventy-one 
wounded. * * * * I have no accurate data from which to estimate 
the enemy's force on this day. He is known to have been reinforced 
after the action of the 8th, both by cavalry and infantry, and no doubt 
to an extent at least equal to his loss on that day. It is probable 
that six thousand men were opposed to us, and in a position chosen 
by themselves, and strongly defended with artillery. The enemy's 
loss was very great. Nearly two hundred of his dead were buried 
by us on the day succeeding the battle. His loss in killed, wounded, 
and missing in the two affairs of the Sth and 9th, is, I think, mode- 
rately estimated at one thousand men." 

" Our victory has been decisive. A small force has overcome im- 
mense odds of the best troops that Mexico can furnish ; veteran regi- 

* Rough and Ready Annual. 



MEETING OF TAYLOR AND LA VEGA. 243 

ments, perfectly equipped and appointed. Eight pieces of artillery, 
several colours and standards, a great number of prisoners, including 
fourteen officers, and a large amount of baggage and public property, 
have fallen into our hands." 

Some incidents of these two memorable days are worthy of note. 
The admirable conduct of Lieutenant Blake, in reconnoitering the 
enemy's position, has been noticed. This brave officer was not per- 
mitted to share the dangers and triumph of Resaca de la Palma. On 
the morning of the 9th, after Captain McCall had been sent to recon- 
noiter, he rode back with General Taylor to the train. Being excess- 
ively fatigued with the labours of the previous day, he alighted from 
his horse, and, after uttering an expression of gratification at the 
prospect of repose, he threw his belt and pistols upon the ground. 
Through some accident, one of the latter exploded, throwing its con- 
tents upward through his body. The wound was mortal. He 
expired in a few hours, regretting that he had not fallen at Palo 
Alto. 

HE capture of General La Vega was a source 
of much gratification to the American army. 
After delivering his sword, he was con- 
ducted, by May's orders, to Colonel Twiggs. 
That officer delivered him to Colonel Child^ 
who, in conducting him through his com- 
mand, ordered the soldiers to present arms, 
which they did in the utmost silence. The 
general, surprised at the salute, slowly and 
courteously raised his hat, and the troops 
shouldered their arms. Colonel Childs then 
committed his prisoner to the charge of Cap- 
tain Magruder, who conducted him to General Taylor. The American 
commander shook him warmly by the hand, and is said to have ad- 
dressed him as follows: " General, I do assure you I deeply regret 
that this misfortune has fallen upon you. I regret it sincerely, and I 
take great pleasure in returning you the sword which you have this 
day worn with so much gallantry." After receiving the sword, La 
Vega made a suitable reply in Spanish, and was then taken charge 
of by Colonel Twiggs, as his guest. 

A description of the battle-ground has already been given. The 
following account of its appearance after the action, slightly altered 
from the narrative of an eye witness, who shared the action, may prove 
interesting. " Our troops were resting on the battle-ground. Alas, what 
a sad picture presented itself. Around were lying heaps of dead, 
dying, and disabled men. The sigh, the groan, the shriek of agony 




244 BATTLE OF RE SAC A DE LA PAL MA. 

filled the air, whilst the eye could scarcely rest upon a spot where 
there were not dead bodies, mutilated limbs, and groups of men 
crushed into one undistinguished mass. 

" Resaca de la Palma is covered with the graves of our fallen 
countrymen, who fell, many of them, fighting hand to hand with the 
enemy. Their antagonists are buried around them by hundreds. I 
was shown one grave, near the spot where the brave Cochrane is 
interred, in which eight Mexicans are said to have been placed ; and 
there are many more, each containing a score or two of the slaugh- 
tered foe. The grave of poor Inge was pointed out to me. It is 
near where one of the enemy's batteries was posted. It was with 
feelings of deep sadness that I recalled to mind the many virtues of 
this gallant and noble-minded officer. He had left a young wife in 
Baltimore, and had arrived at Point Isabel with a body of recruits 
just in time to march with General Taylor. He had distinguished 
himself in both battles by his heroic daring, and fell* at the moment 
when that brilliant victory, to which he contributed so largely, was 
about to declare itself in favour of our arms. Mexican caps, and 
remnants of their clothing are scattered here and there, and the whole 
field is dotted with marks of the enemy's camp fires. It is a wild 
looking place, and so advantageous was the position of the enemy, 
that it will ever remain a wonder to me that our little army was not 
cut to pieces by their greatly superior force. Over a great portion 
of the ground on which our army prepared to attack them, the thickets 
are so dense that a dog would find it difficult to penetrate them. 
The men actually pushed each other through these thickets, and be- 
came divided into small squads of from three to six." 

HE American army bivouacked on the field ; 
while for the first time since the morning: of 
the 3d, the garrison under Captain Hawkins 
slept in conscious security. The valour of 
these troops, isolated as they were from all 
immediate succour, and on watch night and 
day, is equally praiseworthy with that of 
those who fought with Arista in the open 
field. The enemy had fired at them about two thousand seven hun- 
dred shells and shot; but strange to say, only one officer and a ser- 
geant were killed, and thirteen others wounded. The difficulties of 
their situation were increased by the presence of all the camp women 
who had been left there by General Taylor. In honour of the la- 
mented commander, the fort was denominated Fort Brown. 

* In May's charge on the Mexican battery. 




TAYLOR CONGRATULATES THE ARMY. 



24o 



The army were congratulated for their success in the following 
terms— [order No. 59, May 11, 1846] : 

"The commanding general congratulates the army under his com- 
mand upon the signal success which has crowned its recent opera- 
tions against the enemy. The coolness and readiness of the troops 
during the action of the 8th, and the brilliant impetuosity with which 
the enemy's position and artillery were carried on the 9th, have dis- 
played the best qualities of the American soldier. To every officer 
and soldier of his command, the general publicly returns his thanks 
for the noble manner in which they have sustained the honour of the 
service, and of the country. 

" While the main body of the army has been thus actively em- 
ployed, the garrison left opposite Matamoras has rendered no less 
distinguished service, by sustaining a severe cannonade and bombard- 
ment for many successive days. 

" The army and country, while justly rejoicing in this triumph of 
our arms, will deplore the loss of many brave officers and men who 
fell gallantly in the hour of combat. 

" It being necessary for the commanding general to visit Point 
Isabel on public business, Colonel Twiggs will assume command of 
the corps of the army near Matamoras, including the garrison of the 
field-work. He will occupy the former lines of the army, making 
such disposition for defence, and for the comfort of his command, as 
he may deem advisable. He will hold himself strictly on the de- 
fensive until the return of the commanding general." 




Death of Ringgold. 




CHAPTER XIII. 



BARITA AND MATAMORAS CAPTURED. 




AJOR RINGGOLD expired on the 11th, 
at Point Isabel, and his funeral, with ap- 
propriate ceremonies, took place on the 
12th. The major was a graduate of 
West Point, and esteemed one of the 
best artillery officers in the service. For 
some time he commanded a battery of 
light artillery, and lived to see the per- 
fection, to which he had brought that 
arm of the service, exemplified on the 
battle-field. During the sixty hours 
that he survived his wound, he had but little pain, and at intervals 
slept. He spoke frequently of the execution done by his battery, 
and, notwithstanding his condition, seemed to participate in the 
triumph of victory as much as those around him. 

On the 10th of May, 1846, an exchange of prisoners took place 
between the two armies, by which the Americans recovered Cap- 
tains Thornton and Hardee, Lieutenant Kane, and others. The Mexi- 
can officers were liberated on parole ; but this was declined by 
General La Vega, on the ground that he would not be permitted to 
remain quiet in Mexico. The Americans, having a surplus of pri- 
soners, permitted them to rejoin their countrymen after giving a 
receipt of their number. 

Early on the same day, General Taylor sent to Matamoras for sur- 
geons to attend the Mexican wounded ; while at the same time he 
(246) 



TAKING OF BARITA. 



247 



ordered his men to collect their dead, and bury them on the same 
field with his own. These orders were punctually obeyed. 

On the 11th, General Taylor left Fort Brown for Point Isabel, in 
order to hold a communication w T ith Commodore Conner, of the gulf 
squadron. The commodore had but lately arrived at the point, with 
sufficient force to guard against the possibility of a successful attack. 
He now concerted with the commander, a combined movement 
against all the Mexican posts on the Rio Grande, designing to leave 
in each of them after its capture, a garrison sufficient to repel all 
attempts at regaining it. 

On the 13th, General Taylor with his staff and a body of dragoons, 
set out for Fort Brown. He had proceeded but a little distance, 
when he was met by a courier with the information that a large Mexi- 
can force had arrived, during his absence, at Matamoras, and that 
the enemy were fortifying Barita, a small town on the west bank of 
the river, near the gulf. This news determined him to return to 
Point Isabel, in order to draw from thence a detachment sufficiently 
large to guard against all exigencies at his principal station. On 
reaching the point, he found that a large force, both of regulars and 
volunteers, had just arrived. They came from Louisiana and Ala- 
bama, being the first soldiers sent from the United States in answer 
to the general's demand for troops. 

The general now selected about six hundred men, with two hun- 
dred and fifty wagons filled with stores, and with these, and an artil- 
lery train, he again started on the 14th for the river fort. He reached 
it on the same day, and immediately commenced operations for an 
attack upon Barita. 

OMMODORE CONNER had arranged with 
the general, the plan of assault. He was 
to blockade the mouth of the river, and land 
stores, troops, and other necessaries, while 
Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson, with three 
companies of volunteers, under General 
Desha, and Captains F. Stockton and 
Tobin were to cross below Matamoras, 
and march down the river bank to the 
town. Owing to inclement weather, the 
commodore was not able to pass his ves- 
sels over the bar, and for this reason, could 
not co-operate. Wilson, however, crossed 
the river, and moved down upon the station. To his astonishment, 
he met with no enemy, and the important post of Barita was taken 
without the loss of a man. Some of the inhabitants, at the approach 




248 CAPTURE OF BARITA AND M ATA MORAS. 



of the Americans, fled into the interior ; but in a few days they re 
turned, and business resumed its customary routine. Barita is a 
small village, (rancho,) about ten miles from the mouth of the river, 
and the same distance from Point Isabel. It is the first high land 
reached on ascending the river, the ground being elevated so as to 
command every thing around it. It forms an excellent position for 
a military station, communicating with the river above and below, as 
well as with Point Isabel, and the interior of Northern Mexico. 

So embarrassing was the situation of General Taylor, through want 
of boats, and necessary articles for crossing the river, that he was not 
able to complete his preparations for this purpose until the 17th. 
Early on the morning of that day, while the Americans were march- 
ing to the ford, and orders had been already issued to Colonel 
Twiggs, the Mexicans sounded a parley, and soon after General 
Requena waited upon the American commander, with a commu- 
nication from the city. General Arista proposed an armistice, affirming 
that the difficulties between the two nations would speedily be settled. 
HE general replied that no armistice could 
be granted, at the same time reminding the 
Mexican officer that, a month before, he had 
proposed one to General Ampudia, which 
was declined. Circumstances had now 
changed. He had neither invited nor pro- 
voked hostilities, nor would he suspend 
them. General Requena then wished to 
know if the Americans intended taking 
Matamoras. The commander answered in 
the affirmative ; but declared that Arista 
might withdraw his troops on condition of 
leaving the public property of every kind. 
The officer then left, promising to bring an 
answer from General Arista at three o'clock. 
Meanwhile the troops were marching 
towards the station, from whence they were 
to cross. All the boats on the river were 
secured, and before midnight, every thing 
was ready for a descent on Matamoras, on 
the morning following. The promised 
answer of General Arista had not arrived. 
This circumstance confirmed General Taylor in his suspicions, 
that the armistice was a pretence for gaining time. This was made 
certain during the evening by the country people, who reported that 
the Mexican army were marching out of Matamoras with all haste. 




SURRENDER ON M ATA MORAS. 



249 




AJOR CRAIG, Captains Bliss and 
Miles, and Lieutenant Britten, were 
deputed, on the 18th, to wait upon 
the authorities of Matamoras, and de- 
mand a surrender of that city. After 
sounding a parley, Lieutenant Bntton 
crossed with a white flag, and was 
met by a committee of citizens, headed 
by the prefect. The latter crossed 
the river, and brought over the Ame- 
rican deputation, when the whole 
party proceeded to the prefect's office 
in Matamoras. Captain Bliss then 
presented to the Mexican authorities a demand for the immediate sur- 
render of the city and its public stores, providing, at the same time, 
for the security of all private property, and for the undisturbed pos- 
session by the inhabitants of all civil and religious rights. A definite 
answer being required, the prefect said that General Taylor could 
march his troops into the city at any hour that might suit his conve- 
nience. The deputation returned, and reported to their general. 

Meanwhile the American batteries and eighteen-pounders had been 
placed in such a position along the shore, as to defend the crossing 
in case of attack. Ten men, under Lieutenant Hays and Captain 
Walker, were then sent over to ascertain the force and position of 
the enemy. They were followed by the light battalion companies, 
and the infantry of the 3d, 4th, and 5th companies. Two companies 
of the artillery battalion, under Captain Smith, together with Ker's 
squadron of dragoons, came next. Ridgely's artillery followed, and 
about the same time Captain Ker took possession of Fort Paredes, on 
the Mexican side, and erected the national flag upon the acknow- 
ledged soil of Mexico. At this juncture Captain Bliss joined Gene- 
ral Taylor, and reported the result of his interview with the prefect 
The satisfaction of the Americans at thus gaining easy access to a 
large and commodious city, was alloyed by sorrow at the fate of 
Lieutenant Stephens, of the 2d dragoons, who was accidentally 
drowned. He had accompanied Captain May in his charge at Resaca 
de la Palma, and, although young, was highly esteemed by the army 
tor his skill and bravery. 

During the night of the 18th a small guard was placed in the city 
to maintain order — the main body of the American army bivouacking 
along the shores of the river. Colonel Twiggs lay above the city, 
General Worth below, and the remainder of the army at intermediate 
stations. 

32 



250 



CAPTURE OF BARITA AND MATAMORAS. 



General Worth had but lately reappeared at the theatre of war ; 
and the cause of his temporary absence has now to be explained 
His last important act, previous to his leaving the army, was the in- 
terview with the Mexican authorities, immediately after planting the 
American flag on the river bank. Previous to this a dispute had 
arisen between him and Colonel Twiggs, as to precedence of rank. 
Twiggs's appointment [colonel 2d dragoons] was dated June 8, 
1833 ; Worth's [colonel 8th infantry] July 7, 1838 ; but, in addition 
to this, Worth had been twice brevetted as brigadier-general, and it 
was on virtue of this that he now based his claim for a rank next to 
General Taylor. Twiggs refused to yield, affirming that a brevet was 
no commission, and consequently conferred no rank. The matter 
was referred to General Taylor, who decided in favour of Twiggs. 
Considering the decision unjust, Worth threw up his commission, 
and sailed for the United States. Previous to departing, he addressed 
a letter to General Taylor, in which, while regretting the necessity 
of the step, he expressed his belief that open hostilities would not 
occur, but, should that be the case, he would gladly withdraw his 
resignation. "If," he concludes, "there is any form or manner in 
which, out of authority, I can serve you, it is hardly necessary to say 
with what alacrity I shall be always at your command. At the earliest 
moment when you feel assured that no conflict is at hand, or in pros- 
pective, I shall be much gratified by being allowed to retire, and not 
before." 

ORTH had scarcely reached Washington, 
and tendered his resignation, when news 
of Taylor's difficulties reached that city, 
followed in a few days by accounts of the 
battles on the Rio Grande. Previous to 
receiving the latter, Worth wrote as fol- 
lows to the adjutant-general : 

" Reliable information, which I have 
this moment received from the head-quar- 
ters of the army, in front of Matamoras, 
makes it not only my duty, but accords 
with my inclination, to request permission 
to withdraw my resignation, and that I be 
ordered or permitted forthwith to return 
to, and take command of, the troops from 
which I was separated on the 7th of April, by order No. 43, army 
of occupation." 

This request being complied with, the general left Washington on 
the 11th of May, and reached the Rio Grande in time to participate 




DESCRIPTION OF M ATA MORAS. 



251 




Public Square, Matamoras. 



in the taking of Matamoras. After the occupation of the city by the 
American troops, Colonel Twiggs was appointed military governor. 
So precipitate had been the retreat of the enemy, that large quanti- 
ties of military stores were strewed along their track, boxes and store- 
houses were broken open, and quantities of arms and ammunition 
thrown into wells and among thickets. 

An officer of the American army thus describes the city : — " Mata- 
moras is a much handsomer place than I expected to find it. It 
covers two miles square, though by no means as compact as an 
American city. Every house, except those around the public square, 
has a large garden attached. The houses in the business part of the 
town are built after the American fashion, though seldom exceeding 
two stories in height. All the windows to these buildings are grated 
from top to bottom with iron bars, and half of the door only opens for 
admittance, which gives them the appearance of prisons, more than 
business houses. The public square is in the centre of the town, and 
must have been laid out by an American or European, for the Mexi- 
cans never could have laid it out with such beauty and precision. 
On the four sides of the square the houses are built close together, 
as in a block, and are all of the same size and height, with the ex- 
ception of the cathedral, which, though unfinished, still towers above 
the others. In these houses are sold dry goods, groceries, and every 
kind of wares, with now and then an exchange or coffee-house. 



252 CAPTURE OF BARITA AND MATAMORAS. 

They are principally occupied by Europeans, and one can hear 
French, English, Spanish, and German, spoken at the same time. 
After leaving the public square, on either side, the houses decrease 
in size and beauty for two or three squares, when the small reed and 
thatched huts commence, and continue to the extreme limits of the 
place." 

Thus in the short space of twenty-three days after the capture of 
Captain Thornton, which may be considered the commencement of 
actual war, the Americans had defeated a superior force of the enemy 
in two battles, driven their army into the interior, entirely destroying 
its moral efficiency, successfully defended two isolated positions, cap- 
tured Barita and Matamoras, and destroyed for ever the Mexican 
jurisdiction in Texas. Such results had displayed to the world the 
military character of our officers and troops. The long peace had 
not impaired the national energy, nor rendered less formidable that 
army, which in the nation's infancy had twice braved the utmost 
efforts of Great Britain ; and foreign powers, who had scoffed at the 
unavoidable prolongation of the Seminole difficulties in Florida, were 
taught other dispositions, when a fair opportunity was offered for the 
display of our energies. 

But this campaign did more. It taught our own soldiers their 
efficiency. Since that time, no American force has ever thought of 
being defeated by any amount of Mexican troops. Whenever and 
however the two nations have met in the field, the Americans were 
sure of victory before the battle commenced. This very confidence 
has no doubt often been one main cause of triumph. Had the battle 
of Buena Vista been the first one of the war, there is every reason to 
believe that Santa Anna would have triumphed ; for often, during 
the exigencies of that terrible action, when victory hung in long un- 
certainty upon the conduct of single parties, the remembrance of 
former triumphs was the mainspring of American effort. Such was 
the case, too, in the battles before Mexico ; and frequently even 
the Mexicans seem to have contended less for victory, than for the 
support of the national honour, by a vigorous though unsuccessful 
resistance. 

Another result of our operations on the Rio Grande, was to bring- 
prominently before the nation the merit of our officers. It might seem 
inexplicable to the commanders of Europe, that the general who. now 
ranks among the first of our military men, was, prior to these opera- 
tions, unknown even by name to the bulk of his countrymen. The 
same may be said of Generals Twiggs, Worth, Smith, and others, all 
of whom are now among the brightest ornaments of the service. 
Other generals have been appointed since that time, some of whom 



RESULT OF THE OPERATIONS. 



253 



have displayed a valour and skill remarkable in citizen soldiery; but 
none have ever taken that hold upon public approbation, which a 
grateful nation has spontaneously extended to the heroes of the Rio 
Grande. These first operations of the war must be considered the 
foundation on which is based to a great extent all the glory which 
has accrued to our nation from the Mexican war. 




Mexicans in their holiday attire. 




General Gaines. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



EVENTS SUBSEQUENT TO THE CAPTURE OF MATAMORAS. 




HE crossing of the Rio Grande placed the relative 
position of the two armies in a new aspect. Hitherto 
General Taylor's force had been an army of occu- 
pation, now it was to become an invading power. 
Future triumphs were to be not only victories but con- 
quests; disputed boundary no longer formed an im- 
pediment to onward progress ; and the city of Mexico now became 
the ultimate object of military operations. 

On the 11th of May, 1846, President Polk, after receiving in- 
(254) 



MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT. 255 

telligence of Thornton's capture, transmitted to the American con- 
gress a message, in which he announced that war had actually 
commenced. After a long enumeration of the causes of this event, 
and of the aggressions committed by Mexico against our citizens, 
the president concludes in the following language : " War actually 
existing, and our territory having been invaded, General Taylor, 
pursuant to authority vested in him by my direction, has called on 
the governor of Texas for four regiments of state troops, two 
to be mounted, and two to serve on foot ; and on the governor of 
Louisiana, for four regiments of infantry, to be sent to him as soon 
as practicable. 

" In further vindication of our rights, and defence of our territory, 
I invoke the prompt action of Congress, to recognize the existence of 
the war, and to place at the disposition of the executive the means 
of prosecuting the war with vigour, and thus hastening the restora- 
tion of peace. To this end I recommend that authority should be 
given to call into the public service a large body of volunteers, to 
serve for not less than six or twelve months, unless sooner discharged. 

" A volunteer force is, beyond question, more efficient than any 
other description of citizen soldiers ; and it is not to be doubted that 
a number, far beyond that required, would readily rush to the field 
upon the call of their country. I further recommend that a liberal 
provision be made for sustaining our entire military force, and fur- 
nishing it with supplies and munitions of war. 

" The most energetic and prompt measures, and the immediate 
appearance in arms of a large and overpowering force, are recom- 
mended to Congress as the most certain and efficient means of bring- 
ing the existing collision with Mexico to a speedy and successful 
termination. 

" In making these recommendations, I deem it proper to declare, 
that it is my anxious desire, not only to terminate hostilities speedily, 
but to bring all matters in dispute between this government and 
Mexico to an early and amicable adjustment ; and in this view I 
shall be prepared to renew negotiations, whenever Mexico shall be 
ready to receive propositions, or to make propositions of her own." 

Agreeably to these suggestions of the president, Congress passed 
an act on the 13th of May, declaring the existence of war between 
the two republics, empowering the president to accept the services 
of fifty thousand volunteers, and appropriating ten millions of dol- 
lars to defray expenses. Thus authorized, the executive issued a 
proclamation, invoking the nation to assist in sustaining these 
measures. 

After the capture of Matamoras, the American general used every 



256 



COLONEL GARLANDS OPERATIONS. 




exertion to increase-the impression already made upon the Mexican 
nation. On the day following the surrender of the city, Colonel Gar- 
land, with two companies of rangers and the dragoons, was sent into 
the interior to follow up and observe the course of the retreating 
army. The command, being quite small, was not designed for hos- 
tile operations, but merely as a corps of observation. After proceed- 
ing about twenty-seven miles, he fell in with the enemy's rear-guard, 
which he attacked, killing two men, wounding two, and capturing 
twenty, with their baggage. Two of his rangers were wounded. 
He advanced sixty miles, and returned to Matamoras on the 22d. 

About this time large reinforcements of troops began to arrive, in 
answer to the requisition made by General Taylor upon the governors 
of the more southern states. The influx of these volunteers was 
so rapid, and in such large quantities, that the general soon found 
himself completely embarrassed. The object purposed by govern- 
ment he was not aware of; and, having but a limited quantity of sup- 
plies, he was soon in a situation more perplexing than that which 



TAYLOR TO THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL. 25? 

preceded the 8th of May. From this time the general is observed 
under peculiar circumstances, struggling with difficulties which he 
had had no agency in producing, and the removal of which was 
entirely beyond his control. The history of this period, though chiefly 
diplomatic, forms an interesting chapter, and abounds in reasons for 
many otherwise inexplicable subsequent events. On the 20th of May, 
the commander wrote as follows to the adjutant-general at Washington : 

" On the 26th of April, I had found it necessary to use the autho- 
rity with which I was vested, and call upon the governors of Louis- 
iana and Texas for a force each of four regiments. The eight regi- 
ments thus called for would make a force of nearly five thousand 
men, which I deemed sufficient to meet the wants of the service in 
this quarter. At the same time that I wrote to the governor of Louis- 
iana, requesting this volunteer force, I addressed a letter to General 
Gaines, desiring him to assist in organizing these regiments, and 
having them promptly supplied. In my communication to the go- 
vernor, the organization was very exactly prescribed, being that indi- 
cated from your office, on the 25th of August, 1845. I find, how- 
ever, that the organization has been exceeded, and, moreover, that 
General Gaines has called for many more volunteers than I deemed 
necessary, extending the call to other states beside Louisiana. 

" It will, of course, be for the government to decide whether the 
future operations in this quarter will require the amount of force (en- 
tirely unknown) which is coming hither. I only desire to say, that 
this reinforcement, beyond the eight regiments mentioned above, was 
never asked for by me, and that, in making the call of the 26th of 
April, I well knew that, if the Mexicans fought us at all, it would be 
before the arrival of the volunteers. It was for the purpose of clear- 
ing the river, and performing such further service as the government 
might direct, that I thought it proper to ask for reinforcements. It is 
extremely doubtful whether the foot regiments from Texas can be 
raised, and I shall desire the governor to suspend the call for 
them. * * * * I fear that the volunteers have exhausted the 
supply of tents deposited in New Orleans for the use of this army. 
We are greatly in want of them ; and I must request that immediate 
measures be taken to send direct to Brazos Santiago, say one thou- 
sand tents, for the use of the army in the field. The tents of the 7th 
infantry were cut up to make sand-bags during the recent bombard- 
ment of Fort Brown.'' 

The orders of General Gaines, to which General Taylor refers in 
this letter, together with their consequences to that officer, form a 
most interesting episode of the war, should be noticed in this 
connection. 

t2 33 



258 



GENERAL GAINESS OPERATIONS. 




ENERAL GAINES, at the opening 
of the Mexican war, held command 
of the south-western department of 
the army, his head-quarters being 
at New Orleans. He watched the 
fortunes of the little army of occupa- 
tion with deep anxiety ; and when 
news arrived of its being divided 
into two portions, each of which was 
surrounded by a vastly superior 
force, a soldier's sympathy impelled 
him to attempt its rescue. Soon af- 
ter, General Taylor informed him 
officially o p his situation, and that a 
volunteer force, consisting of four 
regiments from Louisiana, and four from Texas had been ordered 
as reinforcements. At the same time he was requested to aid the 
governor of Louisiana in equipping and forwarding the troops of that 
state. 

On receiving this information, General Gaines wrote to the go- 
vernors of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri, 
advising them to anticipate a call from the president for volunteers, 
and to make preparations to raise the troops. It was in compliance 
with this call that the large number of volunteers of which General 
Taylor complains, were mustered and sent to the Rio Grande. He 
also appointed several officers of the staff. This course met the de- 
cided disapprobation of President Polk ; and General Gaines was 
immediately ordered to Washington to answer for his conduct before 
a court-martial, of which General Brady was chairman. After a 
searching and impartial trial, the court reported that General Gaines 
had exceeded and disobeyed his orders ; but that it had been from 
an honest conviction of duty, and a belief that his measures would 
meet the full approbation of the executive. The report concludes 
with the following complimentary language : 

" Having now reported their finding and opinion, the court re- 
commend to the favourable consideration of the president, the good 
and patriotic motives and the public zeal by which, as the court be- 
lieve, General Gaines was actuated in all these transactions, and 
therefore they recommend that no further proceedings be had in this 
case." 

This report was approved, and the case dismissed. General 
Gaines was subsequently appointed to the command of the northern 
department, with his head-quarters at New York. 



TAYLOR TO THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL. 



259 




General Roger Jones. 



We resume the account of the correspondence between Genera. 
Taylor and the war department. The letter last quoted was followed 
by other letters of similar import, from one of which, dated June 3d, 
we give an extract : "I am necessarily detained at this point, for 
want of suitable transportation to carry on offensive operations. There 
is not a steamboat at my command proper for the navigation of the 
Rio Grande ; and without water transportation I consider it useless 
to attempt any extensive movement. Measures have been taken to 
procure boats of suitable draught and description, and one or two 
may be now expected. * * * * I trust the department will 
see that I could not possibly have anticipated the arrival of such 
heavy reinforcements from Louisiana as are now here, and on their 
way hither. Without large means of transportation, this force will 
embarrass, rather than facilitate our operations. I cannot doubt that 
the department has already given instructions based upon the change 
in our position since my first call for volunteers." 

On the 10th of the same month, he wrote to the adjutant-general, 
Roger Jones, as follows : 



260 GENERAL TAYLOR'S LETTER. 

" I beg leave earnestly to invite the attention of the department to 
the following points : 

" First : The great influx of volunteers at Point Isabel ; Five regi- 
ments certainly from Louisiana, numbering, say three thousand six 
hundred men ; two regiments or battalions from Louisville and St. 
Louis, numbering, say twelve hundred men more ; several companies 
from Alabama, and I know not how many from Texas — the latter 
now beginning to arrive. The volunteer troops, now under my 
orders, amount to nearly six thousand men. How far they may be 
increased without previous notification to me, it is impossible to tell. 

" Secondly : The entire want of the proper kind of transportation 
to push my operations up the river. The boats on which I depended 
for this service were found to be nearly destroyed by worms, and 
entirely unfit for the navigation of the river. At my instance, Major 
Thomas, on the 18th of May, required from Lieutenant-Colonel Hunt, 
a boat of the proper description, and followed it up in a few days by 
a requisition for another. At the last dates from New Orleans, no 
boats had been procured. Captain Sanders, of the engineers, was 
despatched by me to New Orleans, to assist in procuring suitable 
boats but I have yet received no report from him. 

"As I have previously reported, my operations are completely 
paralyzed, by the want of suitable steamboats to navigate the Rio 
Grande. Since the 18th of May, the army has lain in camp near this 
place, continually receiving heavy reinforcements of men, but no 
facility for water transport, without which, additional numbers are 
but an embarrassment. 

" I desire to place myself right in this matter, and to let the de- 
partment see that the inactivity of the army results from no neglect 
of mine. I must express my astonishment that such large reinforce- 
ments have been sent forward to join the army without being accom- 
panied by the means of transportation, both by land and water, to 
render them efficient. As matters now stand, -whatever may be the 
expectations of the department, I cannot move from this place ; and 
unless Captain Sanders shall succeed in procuring boats, I can give 
no assurance in regard to future operations." 

Notwithstanding the unmistakable language of this extract, we find 
the general compelled to write as follows, on the 17th of June. 

" No steamboats have been sent out from New Orleans for the 
navigation of the Rio Grande, and in the absence of all information 
on that point, or respecting the views of the government, I am alto- 
gether in the dark as to our future operations. I must think that 
orders have been given, by superior authority, to suspend the for- 
warding of means of transportation from New Orleans. I cannot 



OCCUPATION OF REYNOSA. 



261 




General Taylor writing to the War Department 

otherwise account for the extraordinary delay shown by the quarter- 
master's department in that city. Even the mails, containing, pro- 
bably, important despatches from the government, are not expedited. 

" Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson has occupied Reynosa without oppo- 
sition. What remains of the Mexican army, is understood to be 
still at Linares, and has suffered from disease Volunteer regi- 
ments have arrived from Louisville and St. Louis, making with those 
from Louisiana, eight strong and organized battalions, mustering over 
five thousand men. 

" In addition, we have seven companies of Alabama volunteers, 
and twelve or fifteen companies from Texas. Others from Texas are 
continually arriving. A portion of these volunteers have been lying 
in camp at this place for nearly a month, completely paralyzed by the 
want of transportation. Exposed as they are, in this climate, to dis- 
eases of the camp, and without any prospect, so far as I can see, of 
being usefully employed, I must recommend that they be allowed to 
return to their homes." 

On the 9th of July, 1846, Secretary Marcy addressed a confidential 
letter to the general, from which we give the following extracts: 

u The war is only carried on to obtain justice ; and the sooner that 
can be obtained, and with the least expenditure of blood and money, 
the better. One of the evils of war is the interruption of diplomatic 



262 LETTER OF SECRETARY MARCY. 

communications between the respective authorities, and the consequent 
ignorance under which each may lie in relation to the views of the 
other. The natural substitute of these interrupted diplomatic com- 
munications is the military intercourse, which the usages of war allow 
between contending armies in the field, and in which commanding 
generals can do much towards reopening negotiations, and smoothing 
the way to a return of peace. 

" The president has seen with much approbation the civility and 
kindness with which you have treated your prisoners, and all the 
inhabitants w r ith whom you have come in contact. He wishes that 
course of conduct continued, and all opportunities taken to conci- 
liate the inhabitants, and let them see that peace was within their 
reach the moment their rulers will consent to do us justice. The 
inhabitants should be encouraged to remain in their towns and vil- 
lages, and these sentiments be carefully made known to them. The 
same things may be said to officers made prisoners, or who may visit 
your head-quarters according to the usages of war ; and it is the wish 
of the president that such visits be encouraged, and also that you 
take occasions to send officers to the head-quarters of the enemy, for 
military purposes, real or ostensible, which are of ordinary occurrence 
between armies, and in which opportunity may be taken to speak of 
the war itself as only carried on to obtain justice, and that we had 
much rather procure that by negotiation than by fighting. Of course 
authority to speak for your government will be disavowed, but a 
knowledge of its wishes will be averred, and a readiness will be ex- 
pressed to communicate to your government the wishes of the Mexi- 
can government to negotiate for honourable peace whenever such 
shall be their wish, and with the assurance that such overtures will 
be met in a corresponding spirit by your government. A discreet 
officer, who understands Spanish, and who can be employed, in the 
intercourse so usual between armies, can be your confidential agent 
on such occasions, and can mask his real under his ostensible object 
of a military interview. 

"You will also readily comprehend that, in a country so divided 
into races, classes, and parties as Mexico is, and with so many local 
divisions among departments, and personal divisions among indi- 
viduals, there must be great room for operating on the minds and 
feelings of large portions of the inhabitants, and inducing them to 
wish success to an invasion which has no desire to injure their 
country, and which in overthrowing their oppressors, may benefit 
themselves. Between the Spaniards, who monopolize the wealth 
and power of the country, and the mixed Indian race, who bear 
its burdens, there must be jealousy and animosity. The same 



MARCY'S LETTER TO TAYLOR. 



263 




Hon. W. L. Marcy, Secretary of War. 



feelings must exist between the lower and the higher orders of the 
clergy, the latter of whom have the dignities and the revenues, while 
the former have poverty and labour. In fact, the curates were the 
chief authors of the revolution which separated Mexico from Spain, 
and their relative condition to their superiors is not much benefited 
by it." 

In this letter, the secretary hinted at other operations than those 
in which Taylor was then engaged, and suggested Tampico or Vera 
Cruz as their base ; the letter concludes as follows : 

" Upon these important points, in addition to those mentioned in 
my letter of the 8th of June, your opinions and views are desired at 
the earliest period your duties will permit you to give them. In the 
mean time, the department confidently relies on you to press forward 
your operations vigorously to the extent of your means, so as to oc- 
cupy the important points within your reach on the Rio Grande and 



264 Taylor's answer. 

in the interior. It is presumed that Monterey, Chihuahua, and other 
places in your direction, will be taken and held. If in your power 
to give the information, the department desires to be informed of 
the distance from Chihuahua to Guaymas, on the Gulf of California ; 
whether there be a road over which ordnance and baggage-wagons 
could be taken, and whether it be practicable for an army to march 
from the former to the latter place, and what time would probably 
be required for mounted men, and what time for infantry or artillery 
to do so. This information is desired, before the department can 
be prepared to decide upon the propriety of sending forward such 
an expedition." 

On the 1st of August, the general answered this letter, by one (from 
• Matamoras) from which we give the following extracts: 

" First. As to the intercourse with the enemy, and means of ob- 
taining information with regard to his movements, &c, I fear that no 
very satisfactory results will be obtained in the way proposed. The 
Mexican generals and other officers have exhibited, since the com- 
mencement of hostilities, a determination to hold with us as little 
intercourse as possible. A most rigid non-intercourse has been held 
throughout ; and since the 17th of June, no communication whatever 
has passed between the head-quarters of the two armies. I shall not 
fail to improve such occasions, when they present themselves in the 
manner pointed out by the secretary. Since crossing the Rio Grande, 
it has been my constant aim to conciliate the people of the country ; 
and I have the satisfaction of believing that much has been done 
towards that object, not only here, but at Reynosa, Camargo, and other 
towns higher up the river. The only obstacle I encounter, in carry- 
ing out this desirable policy, arises from the employment of volunteer 
troops. Some excesses have been committed by them upon the 
people and their property, and more, I fear, are to be apprehended. 
With every exertion, it is impossible effectually to control these troops, 
unaccustomed as they are to the discipline of camps, and losing, in 
bodies, the restraining sense of individual responsibility. With in- 
creased length of service, these evils, it is hoped, will be diminished. 

" Second. In regard to availing ourselves of internal divisions and 
discord among the Mexicans, it is hardly time yet to say how far this 
may be relied upon as an element of success. I have good reason 
to believe that the country lying between the Rio Grande and the 
Sierra Madre, is disposed to throw off the yoke of the central govern- 
ment, and will perhaps do so, as soon as it finds a strong American 
force between it and the capital. I shall do all in my power to en- 
courage this movement, of which I received indications from many 
quarters, and shall comply fully with the instructions of the secretary 



TAYLOR MADE MAJOR-GENERAL. 265 

on that point. ********! have already had occasion to repre- 
sent to the department, that the volunteer force ordered to report to 
me here, is much greater than I can possibly employ, at any rate, in 
the first instance ; the influx of twelve month's volunteers has even 
impeded my forward movement, by engrossing all the resources of 
the quartermaster's department to land them, and transport them to 
healthy positions. This circumstance, in connexion with the possi- 
bility of an expedition against , leads me to regret that one divi- 
sion of the volunteers had not been encamped — say at Pass Chris- 
tian — where it could have been instructed until its services were 
required in the field. 

" These embarrassments, however, are now mostly overcome ; the 
regular force is nearly all at Camargo ; and all the arrangements are 
made to throw forward the volunteers to the same point. The pre- 
sident may be assured, that no one laments more than I do the inevi- 
table difficulties and delays that have attended our operations here, 
and that no exertion of mine has been or will be wanting, to press 
forward the campaign with all possible vigour. But I deem it indis- 
pensable to take such amount of force, and observe such precautions 
as not to leave success a matter of doubt." 

Such is the more important part of the interesting correspondence 
between General Taylor and the war department. Without it, a his- 
tory of the Mexican war would be incomplete, since it gives reasons 
and causes for many things otherwise inexplicable. We here see the 
commander in a new position, surrounded with uncontrollable diffi- 
culties, but resolutely maintaining what he believes right, and un- 
willing to bear any blame for matters for which he is not accountable. 
At the same time, the views of government are unfolded, as well 
as the avowed purpose for which the war was carried on. 

During the time covered by this correspondence, military events 
of some interest had been transpiring among portions of the army. 
Congress, on receiving news of General Taylor's victory, appointed 
him a major-general by brevet ; and in less than a month after, 
[June 18th,] commissioned him full major-general. He thus became 
the second officer in rank of the American army. 

On the 6th of June, Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson, with four compa- 
nies of the first infantry, Price's company of rangers, and a section 
of Bragg's battery, under Lieutenant Thomas, was sent to take pos- 
session of Reynosa, which he did without meeting with any opposi- 
tion. The town is situated on the Rio Grande, sixty miles above 
Matamoras. On the day following, Governor Henderson arrived from 
Texas, with a large command of volunteers. On the 14th of July, 
Camargo was occupied without resistance by a detachment of two 
Z 34 



266 



DESCRIPTION OF CAMARGO. 




Uamargo, looking North. 



companies of the 7th infantry, under Captain Miles. Two weeks 
after, [July 31,] Captain Vinton, with a small force, occupied Mier 
without resistance. This was followed by the capture of China, by 
McCulloch's Texas rangers. On the same day, General Taylor, with 
the main body of the army, left Matamoras for Camargo, leaving the 
command of the former place with Lieutenant-Colonel Clark, who 
had two companies of artillery, and a regiment of Ohio volunteers 
under Colonel Curtis. 

" Camargo," says Captain Henry, " is a dilapidated town, situated 
upon the river San Juan, a few miles above its junction with the Rio 
Grande. It boasts, like all Mexican towns, of a grand plaza and a 
cathedral, a few low stone buildings, of very thick walls and flat roofs, 
a great many miserable 'jackals,' not a few donkeys, and any number 
of dogs and fighting chickens. The 7th infantry, under the command 
of Captain Miles, was encamped in the plaza. The town was com- 
pletely inundated in June last, and the population driven out. It 
may once have boasted of two thousand inhabitants, but there were 
not more than half that number at the time of the arrival of our army. 
The cathedral is of no particular architectural beauty; it has a cupola 
and two bells. Nearly every building in the place was occupied in 
some manner by the government." 

Reid, in his " Texas Rangers," mentions the inundation of Ca- 
margo. " On ascending the bank, we were struck with the desola- 
tion and ruin which had spread itself on every side. The late flood, 
which had been the cause of it, came on rapidly in the night, while 



INUNDATION OF CAMARGO. 



26? 




Grand Plaza, Camargo. 



the inhabitants were wrapped in their peaceful slumbers ; and many- 
had not the least intimation of it until the waters had actually floated 
them out of their beds. From a description which we received from 
a Mexican who was here at the time, it must have been heart-rend- 
ing in the extreme. Mothers were seen wading, waist deep, carrying 
their children in their arms, hurrying to places of safety, filling the air 
with shrieks of dismay. The men were engaged saving the children, 
many of whom were clinging to floating materials, and carrying them 
to the tops of the houses for safety, which had become the only resort 
among the poorer classes, who lived in huts and slept on the ground 
floor, while those who occupied the two-story houses were in greater 
peril ; for the walls, becoming saturated, gave way and fell in with 
a crash, frequently drowning a whole family, while others were car- 
ried away by the flood, or drowned in their beds. There were many 
lives lost ; and the destruction of property was very great, about two 
hundred houses having been ruined. The town was once very beau- 
tiful ; and, from the ruined walls, we saw the houses must have been 
quite pretty. It contains three plazas, in the middle one of which 
are situated the finest buildings, and where still stands a neat little 
church." 

On the 12th of August, a detachment of Captain Gillespie's rangers, 
another of Captain McCulloch's, with Captain James Duncan, of the 
3d artillery, and Lieutenant Wood, of the engineer corps, left Ca- 



268 



SURRENDER OF SERALVO. 



margo, crossed the San Juan, and took the road to Mier. Early on 
the 14th, they reached the town of Seralvo, seventy-five miles from 
Camargo. After placing sentinels at the avenues, the party entered 
the town, and advanced as far as the plaza. Captain Duncan then 
rode to the alcalde's house, and demanded a surrender, which was 
immediately made. They then advanced some distance into the 
country, and returned to Camargo on the 17th. 

On receiving Captain Duncan's report, General Taylor ordered the 
1st brigade of the 2d (Worth's) division to cross the river, [August 
19,] and take up its march for the interior. On the 21st, Major- 
General Butler reached camp, in company with Generals Quitman 
and Hamer — all of the volunteers. The 2d dragoons, under Gene- 
ral Twiggs, together with the light artillery batteries of Captains 
Ridgely and Taylor also arrived. The 2d brigade of Worth's divi- 
sion, with two companies of infantry, crossed the San Juan on the 
25th, and marched for Seralvo. Other portions of the army followed 
shortly after, and in the early part of September, General Taylor was 
moving forward with all available rapidity for the city of Monterey. 





CHAPTER XV. 



MARCH TO MONTEREY. 



5j]HE victories of General Tay- 
lor had caused some import- 
ant changes in Mexican po- 
licy. Arista was ordered to 
the capital under arrest, and 
most of the officers who had 
served under him were either 
court-martialed or removed. 
The popularity of Paredes 
daily decreased, and several 
parties were in open array 
against him. The country 
was in a tumult of excitement, 
anxious for the utter exter 
mination of the invaders, 
but distracted by factions, and 
ignorant of the means for promoting its object. But amid this wreck 
of former prospects, and sickening apprehension as to the future, one 
z2 (269) 




270 ampudia's proclamation. 

man managed to maintain his popularity. This was Ampudia ; and 
he effected his purpose by intrigue and misrepresentation. Imme- 
diately after the action of the 9th, while Matamoras yet rung with 
the yells of maddened disappointment, he busied himself with spread- 
ing reports that the main cause of disaster was Arista's cowardice ; 
and that had the command of the army been intrusted to him, the 
Americans would have been annihilated. Among a people like the 
Mexicans, untried valour, garnished with pompous declarations, can 
generally prevail against misfortune, whether culpable or otherwise ; 
and accordingly, the officer who had made one of the most vigorous 
stands ever effected by the Mexicans, was disgraced; while his 
cowardly and fawning accuser received all the honours of conducting 
a battle which he did not even share. 

Monterey, the great interior city of Northern Mexico, was the 
point to which the American general was now directing his march. 
The defence of this important place was intrusted to General Am- 
pudia. The garrison was large, and the works of sufficient strength 
to be considered impregnable. On the 31st of August, he issued a 
proclamation, forbidding any " contraband trade" with the Ameri- 
cans, on penalty of death. The paper opens as follows : 

"Considering that the hour has arrived when energetic measures 
and precautionary dispositions should be taken to liberate the de- 
partments of the east from the rapacity of the Anglo-Americans, and 
for attending to the rights of the people and the usages of war, every 
person who may prove a traitor to his country, or a spy of the enemy, 
shall suffer death without any remission of sentence ; and taking into 
consideration that it is my bounden duty to put an end to the evils 
which have been caused by the contraband trade that has been indis- 
criminately carried on by the usurpers of our sacred territory, and 
using the faculties which the laws have empowered me with, I de- 
clare as follows." Here follows a specification of crimes, and the 
death penalty attached to each. The proclamation had considerable 
effect on the Mexican traders, so that after its circulation the Ame- 
rican army experienced the utmost difficulty in obtaining supplies. 

On the same day another proclamation was issued by Ampudia, 
of which we give the principal part : 

" The army of the United States having invaded the Mexican ter- 
ritory, and penetrated, with the greatest insolence, into the heart of 
this department, threatens to occupy its capital ; and without calcu- 
lating the end of his invasion, I am compelled to provide for the 
emergency and augment successively our defences, placing in action 
all the elements we can command. The importance of this place, 
and my responsibility are apparent. The enemy has dared to pre- 



PREPARATIONS FOR MARCHING. 



271 



sent himself at our doors, and with his advance has insulted and pro- 
voked us without motive or any reason to justify his ignoble and 
treacherous proceedings. I must then avoid and prevent the evil 
which approaches, for it is thus that honour and duty advise. Let 
us go to repel force with force, as the instinct of self-preservation 
dictates. But I ought first to adopt all the means capable of giving 
order to my operations ; and for this object, using the ample autho- 
rity which the supreme government has conceded to me, and with 
which in my character as general-in-chief, it has invested me for such 
cases, I publish the following declaration : 

" It is declared that this place is in a state of siege 
" The civil authorities and public functionaries, during the siege 
are subordinate to the military in every thing relating to the defence 
and service of the place. 

" All citizens shall assist with their arms in the national defence, 
in the manner, time, and form, which the authorities may determine ; 
and to this end the citizens shall yield to the advice and orders of 
their respective military commanders." 

N the 11th of September, the American camp at 
Seralvo was busy with preparations for the en- 
suing march to Monterey. In the evening the 
order of march was read to the companies. 
The pioneers were united into one party, under 
command of Captain Craig, and covered by 
McCulloch's rangers, and a squadron of dra- 
goons. A day intervened between the march 
of each division, the 13th being appointed for the 
movement of the first one. Eight days' rations 
and forty rounds of ammunition were given to 
each soldier, and ample arrangements made to 
provide for casualties and other events incident 
to a military movement. The sick and wounded 
were left behind, together with a garrison of 
two companies from the Mississippi regiment. 
Early on the 12th of September, the advance party marched for 
Marin. It was composed of McCulloch's rangers, Captain Graham's 
squadron of dragoons, and eighty pioneers — the whole commanded 
by Captain Craig. After proceeding about thirteen miles, they 
encamped for the night, at a small stream, whose cool, clear water 
formed a delicious relief after marching under a burning sun. At 
one o'clock of the following day, the party reached Papagayo. Here 
the enemy apoeared in considerable force, and Captain Craig, feeling 




•272 



M^C U L L C II S SKIRMISHES. 




Captain McCulloch. 



his party inadequate to resist an attack, sent a despatch to hurry on 
the first division. 

On the following day, Captain McCulloch, with forty rangers, was 
sent on a scouting expedition towards the town of Ramas. On the 
road, he had occasional skirmishes with parties of the enemy, and 
finally overtook a party of two hundred, at about a quarter of a mile 
from the town. A spirited firing commenced on both sides, when 
McCulloch, observing some wavering among the enemy, charged 
them at full speed. Both parties passed directly through the town, 
and the chase continued for six miles. One of the enemy was killed, 
one wounded, and one captured. The rangers then cautiously re- 
traced their steps, and rejoined the advance, where they found Gene- 
ral Taylor with the first division, he having effected a forced march 
during the previous twenty-four hours. 

The march of the second division from Seralvo to Monterey, is 
graphically described by Reid. With some few alterations, his 
account is inserted. 

u Worth's division had just placed their personal clothing and 



MARCH TO MONTEREY. 273 

accoutrements in convenient condition for packing, yesterday even- 
ing, when they were called out for inspection — orderlies, servants, 
and all, leaving their tents unattended. Just as General Worth 
appeared on the field, a heavy rain, accompanied with wind, com- 
menced, and prostrating many of the tents, soaked every thing in 
camp. At two o'clock this morning, [September 14] the reveille 
beat, and the poor fellows, with their clothes still wet, prepared to 
march. The tents were struck and packed, wagons were brought 
up to receive the tent poles, camp kettles, &c, private mules and 
pack-horses were harnessed, camp women, with children at the 
breast, and of all sizes, packed themselves and little ones on Mexi- 
can mules and ponies, and by daylight the column was in motion. 
The rear guard did not get off until eleven o'clock. The day has 
been exceedingly warm. We have marched twelve miles over a 
country different in every respect from any I have ever before seen. 
The shrubbery and plants are entirely new to me, with the exception 
of the cactus, which grows throughout Mexico in a hundred varieties. 
The wild olive, and a white, round-leafed shrub, with pink blossoms, 
cover the mountains and table-lands. We have crossed five or six 
clear cool streams to-day, and are now encamped upon the brow of a 
ravine, down which runs a spring brook. 

" We are now (morning of the 15th) about fourteen miles from 
Marin. We passed a few moments since a rancho which had just 
been deserted in great haste — the cows, goats, and chickens having 
been left behind. We left camp this morning at four o'clock. Our 
way has led along the foot of a mountain, which rises on our right 
to a height of twenty-five hundred to three thousand feet. We like- 
wise have a mountain on our left, of nearly the same height. These 
two mountains converge before us, and descend at the same time to 
about the level of the table lands upon which we now are. But far 
in the distance before us rises the Sierra Madre, higher and more 
majestic than any we have before seen. Our march to-day has been 
over a very bad road — up hill and down — over rocks and pebbles, 
ravines and mines. The whole country over which we have to-day 
travelled is covered with aged ' Spanish bayonet' trees — a species of 
palm, each leaf of which is pointed with a sharp thorn. Some of 
these trees are from two and a half to three feet in diameter, and 
must be from one hundred and fifty to two hundred years old. As 
we reached this camping place, an express came in from General 
Taylor, directing this division to join him at Marin by a forced march. 
We are therefore bivouacked ready to march at a moment's warning. 
It seems that the Mexicans are assembled in force between here and 
Monterey, and it is rumoured that Santa Anna himself is in the field. 

35 



274 AMERICANS MARCH TO MARIN. 

There is no doubt about there being a strong force at Monterey, and 
General Taylor therefore directs that the first and second divisions 

shall join to-morrow, and march before the town General 

Worth keeps his division always in readiness, so that he could hardly 
be surprised by night or day. Last night a sort of stampede occurred 
in camp, and we shall probably have another to-night. I cannot 
help thinking that if an alarm were to take place to-night, a most 
singular scene would follow. We are bivouacked in a thicket of 
trees, or large shrubs, all of which have thorns. To walk through 
them without stooping and dodging about to avoid the thorns is im- 
possible. Horses and mules are tied by long lassoes in every direc- 
tion. The whole thicket, as well as the road for half a mile, is filled 
with men stretched out on blankets, chatting about the probabilities 
of a fight. * * * * General Taylor arrives at Marin to-night, and will 
there consolidate his little army." 

Before sunrise on the 15th of December, the army commenced its 
march for Marin. At ten o'clock the advance reached a hill over- 
looking the town, from whence could be seen a large body of the 
enemy's cavalry, ranged in the principal street As the Americans 
numbered but twenty-five men, their captain, McCulloch, ordered a 
halt, and the men scattered themselves along the brow of the hill, in 
order to avoid any shot which the enemy might throw from the town. 
The place afforded every opportunity for the concealment of troops, 
the great plaza being hidden from sight by the church and adjoining 
buildings. After waiting for some time, the captain observed the 
lancers moving slowly off towards Monterey, and soon after his com- 
mand took undisputed possession of the town. 

Marin is situated on elevated table-land, from which mountains 
soar up to a great height. It contains a church of white stone, and 
some handsome buildings. The former is surrounded with turrets 
and a steeple. A small stream of water runs through the south side 
of the town, but the inhabitants are supplied mostly by deep wells, 
in which the water is constantly cool and clear. The scenery is per- 
haps equal to that of any part of Mexico. "When within about a 
mile of Marin," says Reid, " the scenery that presented itself was 
magnificent in the extreme. On our right rose the tall peaks of the 
Sierra Alvo, about three thousand feet high, running nearly east and 
west, while before us were the towering peaks of the Sierra Madre, 
ranging north and south, of every shape, forming battlements, lean- 
ing towers, obelisks, and steeples, which seemed almost to pierce 
the heavens. Again, on our left, another chain of mountains reared 
their lofty summits towards the blue sky, the whole composing as it 
were a semi-circle, and presenting a scene of grandeur and surpassing 



TAYLOR AT WALNUT SPRINGS. 



277 



beauty, which filled one with involuntary awe and admiration, while 
the soul became enwrapped and lost in contemplating the masterly 
works of nature." 

On the 18th, the army reached the town of San Francisco, about 
eighty miles from Monterey ; and on the next day arrived at the 
Walnut Springs, three miles from that city. Here General Taylor 
halted and prepared for one of the most remarkable sieges which it 
has ever fallen to the lot of a historian to record. 




A Camp Kitchen. 



2A 




Monterey. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



STORMING OF FEDERATION AND INDEPENDENCE HILLS. 



EFORE describing General Taylor's ope- 
rations before Monterey, it seems proper 
to give a description of the town and its 
defences. 
Monterey (king's mountain) is pleasantly sit- 
uated at the commencement of the Sierra Madre, 
one of the boldest ranges of mountain scenery in 
Mexico. It is distant one hundred and fifty miles 
from Camargo, and perhaps^eight hundred from 
the city of Mexico. The Arroyo San Juan, a 
branch of the river of that name, runs below the 
city; while on the opposite side is an extensive plain, covered with 
fields of maize and sugar-cane, and groves of apple, peach, orange, 
and citron trees. All the roads from the Rio Grande meet at this place, 
(278) 




DESCRIPTION OF MONTEREY. 279 

and after passing through the city unite in one which winds through a 
gorge towards Saltillo. North of the town is a ravine, running east 
and west for nearly a mile. The houses of Monterey are square in 
shape, generally two stories high, and constructed of a white stone 
very difficult to split. The walls are of great thickness, but on ac- 
count of age some of the buildings are in a crumbling condition ; and 
the city itself presents that sombre, venerable appearance, which is 
the invariable accompaniment of Moorish architecture. The plaza 
is large and beautiful, being inclosed in compact rows of houses, in- 
habited by merchants and the wealthy, independent citizens. Re- 
ceding from this, the houses separate from each other, and diminish 
in size until towards the w T alls, where the whole presents the appear- 
ance of a widely scattered village. This rural region is interspersed 
with gardens and extensive fields, while long romantic looking lanes 
connect it with the city proper. This alternation of town and 
country affords agreeable recreation for the inhabitants, and renders 
Monterey one of the most healthy places in Mexico. 

The principal street (calle de Monterey) runs from the Bishop's 
Palace, through the middle of the city, to the plaza of which it forms 
the south-west side. On this street is situated the magnificent coun- 
try seat of General Arista — a beautiful white building, having the 
columns and cornices adorned with red. The halls and rooms are 
spacious, with high ceilings. In the general's former residence there, 
the garden was lined with groves of orange trees, which bordered 
flower-beds separated by beautiful flower-walks — while on each side 
were baths of running water, with various little ornaments placed 
here and there, making the whole a most delightful spot for recrea- 
tion. The business portion of the city commences at the Plaza de 
Came, on the north-east side of which is another fine street. On this 
is situated an academy and other buildings. The main Plaza is a 
large square having the streets on each side well paved. Each of 
the houses surrounding it has a garden inclosed by high stone 
walls, and filled with orange trees, vines, and other tropical 
fruits. The cathedral is a vast pile, irregularly built, and of no par- 
ticular order of architecture. The front presents an imposing ap- 
pearance, having its broad surface richly ornamented with elaborate 
stucco work. The interior is on an equally magnificent scale. The 
lofty pillars, wrought arched ceiling, paintings, and altars, softened 
by the dim light issuing from windows thirty feet from the floor, in- 
spire the beholder with admiration and religious awe. There are 
several small altars, the ornaments of which are carved and gilded 
so as to present a very chaste appearance ; but the main altar is the 
principal object of attention. It forms one huge piece of the richest 



280 



DESCRIPTION OF DEFENCES. 




carving and gilding, decorated with the heads of saints, full-length 
figures, angels, and other objects. During service, the effect of the 
whole is such as can be produced by few ceremonies besides those 
attending the Roman Catholic religion. 

HE defences in and about 
Monterey were on a scale 
which justified the Mexi- 
cans in their belief that 
the city was impregnable. 
The eastern and southern 
approaches were com- 
manded by seven prin- 
cipal works. These are 
enumerated by an eye- 
witness in the following 
order : 

1. A strong redoubt of masonry, of four faces, with an open gorge 
of ten feet, prepared for four guns, overlooked and commanded by a 
large stone house in the rear, prepared with sand bags and loop-holes 
for infantry. 

2. A strong redoubt of four faces, with an open gorge of twenty 
feet, prepared for three guns. 

3. Masonry for infantry, and breastworks. 

4. An unoccupied redoubt of one gun. 

5. Tete-de-pont in front of the bridge of the Purissima, a strong 
work of masonry, mounting three guns. 

6. A strong redoubt, masonry, with four guns, overlooking the ap- 
proaches from Cadareyta, and commanding the gorge of the second 
redoubt. 

7. A strong redoubt of masonry, for three guns, overlooked and 
commanded by a large stone house, prepared for infantry, with loop- 
holes and sand bags. 

The works, with the exception of the first, were connected by 
breastworks of earth and brush, for infantry ; thus forming one great 
fort. The barricades, of masonry, were twelve feet thick, and fur- 
nished with embrasures for guns. All the house-tops and garden 
walls of the city were loop-holed, and provided with sand bags for 
infantry defence. 

The northern approaches were defended by the citadel, a large 
rectangular edifice, built of stone, and surrounded by an inclosed 
work of solid masonry, with four bastion fronts, mounting thirty-one 
guns. The western approaches [stormed by Worth's division] were 
overlooked by the Bishop's Palace, of four guns, a redoubt on Inde- 



MONTEREY AND ITS APPROACHES. 




.•REFERENCES. 



A. Mexican Ambuscade afternoon 20th Sep- 

tember. 

B. Yard into which Mexicans fired on even- 

in? 20th. 

C. Charge of Mexican Lancers morning 21st. 

D. Position of 2d Division on 21st. 

E. Height stormed by Colonel Childs 22d. 

F. Bishop's Palace carried on 22d. 

G. Height stormed by Captain Smith's Party 

21st. 
H. Redoubt stormed by General Smith 21st. 

2a2 



I. Arista's House and Garden. 

J. Church Cemetery, with loop-holes for mus- 
ketry. 

K. Plaza de Came. 

L. Small Plaza. 
M. Grand Plaza. 

P. Q.. R. Positions occupied by our troops 
morning 24th. 

1. Redoubt four guns carried morning 21st. 

2. Redoubt Fort Diablo three guns. 
6. Redoubt four guns. 

36 281 



MONTEREY AND SURROUNDING REGION. 283 




pendence hill, having two guns ; a battery of two guns on Federa- 
tion hill ; and Fort Soldada, of one gun. 

N short, the whole city was one vast fortress. 
Batteries raked each principal street, which, 
uniting with the fires from roofs and houses, 
crossed and recrossed at every point. The 
walls were so thick as to render artillery 
almost useless ; so that houses as well as 
forts were to be stormed with the bayonet, 
and immediately garrisoned, before the 
Americans could proceed successfully 
towards the heart of the city. Besides this, 
the road to the city lay through open corn- 
fields, where the Americans were exposed 
to sweeping fires before they could get into a position to return 
a shot. 

The appearance of Monterey and the surrounding region, as seen 
from the Walnut Springs, is graphically described by Reid : — " The 
scene before us was magnificent and sublime. There lay the rich 
and lovely valley of Monterey, a beautiful undulating plain, while, 
in its centre, between the Saddle mountain, and another chain of the 
Sierra del Madre, lay concealed the capital of Nueva Leon, the tower- 
ing steeple of the cathedral alone being visible to mark its situation. 
Off to the right was the citadel, from whose battlements a flag occa- 
sionally flaunted to the breeze, and then hung in folds again, strug- 
gling as it were to maintain its proud display. To the left could be 
seen the avenues leading to the city, which were fortified by the bat- 
teries and other works of the enemy. Still farther to the right, in 
the rear of the city, stood, on a high hill overlooking the whole, the 
Bishop's Palaee, displaying from its turrets the black cross of the 
holy church, and the green, white, and red banner of Mexico ; while 
the tops of the adjacent heights were covered with snow-white tents. 
Beautiful green fields met the eye on either side, and cattle were 
quietly grazing about, while mountains on every hand rose with their 
high peaks to heaven, tipped with white fleecy clouds, which con- 
trasted beautifully with the bright green of the base of those nearer 
by. Not a soul was to be seen, and the mountains, the vale, and the 
city, seemed alike undisturbed, and wrapped in' the calm repose of 
nature. All was still, save the wild whistle of the forest bird." 

After the army had arrived within sight of the city, a detachment 
of Mexican lancers was observed approaching ; but when the regi- 
ment of Colonel Hays attempted to charge, they suddenly wheeled 
about and returned to the city. Instead of pursuing, Hays ordered 



2S4 



RECONNOISSANCE OF DEFENCES. 



a halt, and the object of the movement was soon apparent. The 
guns of the citadel suddenly opened with twelve-pound shot, which, 
had the rangers been within range, would have committed fearful 
execution in their party. This the keen eye of Hays had foreseen ; 
and consequently he restrained the impetuosity of his troops, and 
thereby baffled the efforts of the enemy. 

Meanwhile, General Taylor and staff, with Major Mansfield and a 
party of engineers, had proceeded to the right, in order to make an 
examination of the enemy's works, when a ball struck within about 
twenty feet of the general, and bounded towards the group, showing 
that the enemy had got the range with their guns. The troops 
marched and counter-marched in front of the enemy's batteries for 
nearly two hours, while balls were ploughing up the ground near 
them. In the afternoon, the whole army encamped at the Walnut 
Springs. During the night, about thirty of the enemy were captured. 
After a careful reconnoissance of the principal defences of the city, 
the American commander was convinced, that, instead of attacking 
the front with his whole army, it would be necessary for him to gain 
the enemy's rear, and carry the positions to the west, thus giving the 
army two chances of success. 

Founding the plan of attacking on these views, the general made 
preparations to gain the Saltillo road, intrusting the command of the 
expedition to General Worth. That officer was to march, by a cir- 
cuitous route, around the hill of the Bishop's Palace, and carry the 
heights or detached works in the enemy's rear. His division con- 
sisted of two brigades. The first, commanded by Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel Staniford, was composed of Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan's battery 
of horse artillery, Lieutenant-Colonel Child's artillery battalion, in- 
cluding six companies and a regiment of infantry. 

ENERAL PERSIFER F. SMITH'S 
brigade, (the 2d,) consisted of Lieu- 
tenant McCall's battery of horse artil- 
lery, the 5th infantry, to which was 
attached Captain Blanchard's company 
of Louisiana volunteers, under Major 
Martin Scott, and the 7th infantry un- 
der Captain Miles. Colonel Hays's 
rejriment of mounted Texas ransrers 
also accompanied the division, which 
numbered altogether about two thou- 
sand men. These were in a high state 
of discipline, and both the general 
and his division were eager to meet the enemy. 




M c CULLOCHS SKIRMISHES. 



287 




OLONEL HAYS'S regiment was ordered 
at nine o'clock A. M., to hold itself in 
readiness for marching. They moved 
at noon, advancing slowly towards some 
corn-fields. The enemy soon perceived 
the movement, and detached large bo- 
dies of infantry from the Bishop's Palace 
to the height above it. To divert their 
attention, General Taylor threw the 1st 
and 3d divisions towards the city, a stra- 
tagem which enabled Hays's command 
to reach the Pescaria Grande road with- 
out interruption. At this place, the 
tents of the enemy on Independence Hill could be plainly perceived. 
Meanwhile, General Burleson of Texas, with about twenty men, 
proceeded along the base of the hill, while Colonel Hays and Lieu- 
tenant-Colonels Duncan and Walker, with Captain McCulloch and 
Colonel Peyton, late of the Louisiana volunteers, ascended the hill 
to reconnoiter. Worth also ascended. Soon after, General Burleson 
rode up, and reported that a large force of both infantry and cavalry 
was approaching, for the purpose of disputing the passage. General 
Worth now joined the other officers, and immediately gave orders for 
a detachment of McCulloch's company to join that of Gillespie, in 
a careful reconnoissance of the hill. While this was being made, 
Colonel Hays fell in with an ambush of the enemy, who opened upon 
him with musket and escopet balls, followed by shells and shot from 
Fort Independence. Hays having with him only about thirty men, 
ordered a retreat ; but many of the party's horses became unmanage- 
able, in consequence of the bursting of shells. This caused much 
confusion, and several of the rangers were for awhile in imminent 
danger; but eventually all rejoined the main army. The colonel 
had a second skirmish with the Mexicans immediately after sun- 
down. The advance were not able to regain camp, and passed the 
night without fire or blankets, exposed to a chilling rain. 

Early on the morning of the 21st, the troops were ordered under 
arms, and without stopping to breakfast, began their march. The 
rangers were in advance as on the previous day, followed by the re- 
mainder of the division in battle array. After proceeding about a 
mile and a half, they reached a turn in the road, near the hacienda 
of San Jeronimo, which brought them in full view of the enemy's 
forces, drawn up for action, to the number of about fifteen hundred. 
Hays immediately ordered his company to deploy to the right, and 
dismount. He was supported by Duncan's battery and the light 



288 CAVALRY ACTION. 

companies of Scott and Smith. The enemy opened their first fire, 
in which they were joined by the battery of Independence Hill. The 
rangers answered by a rapid fire from their rifles. The Mexicans 
then prepared to charge ; and Captain McCulloch being separated 
from the remainder of the regiment was obliged to receive the entire 
shock. Then ensued a scene, which in rapidity of movement and 
individual daring has not been surpassed by any battle of the Mexi- 
can war. The appearance of the enemy was highly military, men 
and horses being gaily caparisoned, and their long lances deco- 
rated with pennons of green and red, which fluttered gracefully in the 
morning sun. "On they came," says Reid, who participated in 
the action, " at a full gallop, led by their brave Lieutenant-Colonel 
Juan N. Najera. McCulloch received them with a leaden rain, from 
rifles, pistols, and shot-guns, while the Texans at the fence poured 
in upon them a deadly fire. The clash was great, and at the shock 
the host moved to and fro as the forest bends before the storm ; but 
our horses were too powerful to be overcome, and many of the 
enemy's bravest men were borne from their saddles. We saw their 
lieutenant-colonel fall while in the thickest of the fight, and exhorting 
his men to rally and stand firm. He was a tall, splendid looking 
officer, with a fierce moustache, and beautiful teeth, which were set hard, 
and with his other features evinced the most marked determination. 
" McCulloch's men were now engaged hand to hand with the 
enemy's lancers, using their revolvers, while some few beat back 
the enemy with their swords. Meanwhile the light companies and 
Duncan's artillery had opened their fire, and the enemy was borne 
back with great slaughter, carrying with them a portion of McCul- 
loch's men, who had fought their way nearly to the enemy's centre, 
and seeing their peril, were fighting to get back. Then it was that 
the hardest struggle took place. Armstrong, one of our company, 
was unhorsed by a lancer, having received two wounds ; yet, on foot, 
with sword in hand, he defended himself against two of the enemy. 
He killed one, and the other was shot by a comrade. ***** 
McCulloch had been twice borne back by the Mexicans, and, making 
a desperate struggle to regain his company, he put his horse at full 
speed, ran down all opposition, and regained his command without 
injury. The Mexicans had taken to the hills, and the regular skir- 
mishers or light companies, under Captains Smith and Scott, con- 
tinued their fire over our heads, killing by accident one of the rangers. 
About this time Captain Gutierrez, of the enemy's cavalry, who had 
received three wounds, was also killed ; he died, fighting to the last, 
one of the most courageous of his race. As the Mexicans gave way, 
tiie light companies rushed up the hill, firing over the ridge at the 



DEATH OF CAPTAIN M C KAVETT. 



291 



retiring enemy, who fled in every direction. Parties of our infantry, 
who had gained the corn-fields, were also picking off the Mexican 
infantry, who were rapidly retreating in the road leading to the city. 
The Texans also poured upon them a destructive fire, and in several 
instances both horse and rider were seen to bound some feet into the 
air, and then fall together down the hill. 

" This most brilliant action lasted about fifteen minutes, during which 
time one hundred and fifty of the enemy were killed and wounded, 
while on our part the loss was trifling. Several of McCulloch's men 
were severely wounded by the enemy's lancers, but our regiment had 
only one killed. The squadron which so bravely charged McCul- 
loch were nearly all cut to pieces. Amid the scene of carnage lay 
stretched out some of their bravest men, in gaudy uniforms ; and 
many a broken lance lay here and there, while the road and hill-side 
were lined with their dead horses, beautifully caparisoned, the sad- 
dles ornamented with silver mountings, presenting a wild and ghastly 
scene. Thirty-two of their dead were buried in one pit." 

FTER the enemy's defeat, Dun- 
can's and McCall's artillery was 
posted on the Saltillo road, and 
opened a fire upon some works 
on Independence Hill. It was 





answered by a nine-pounder from the hill, 
and a battery of two guns from Federation 
Hill, both of which the Mexicans served 
with admirable effect. General Worth 
now ordered his command to march about 
eight hundred yards farther, to a position 
where they would have a full view of the enemy's fortifications. In 
effecting this movement Captain McKavett was killed, and a private 
wounded. 

On the previous evening, Worth had despatched a note to General 
Taylor, suggesting a manceuver on the part of the commander to 
favour the intended attack upon the Bishop's Palace. This was done 
early on the 21st. The infantry and artillery of the 1st division, and 
the field division of volunteers, were ordered under arms, and moved 
towards the city ; while the 2d dragoons, under May, and Colonel 
Wood's regiment of Texas mounted volunteers, under General Hen- 
derson, were directed to the right to support General Worth, if 
necessary, and to make an impression, if practicable, upon the upper 
quarter of the city. 

Before detailing Worth's operations, it may be proper to describe 
his position, relative to both the Mexican redoubts and General Tay- 



292 worth's position. 

lor's camp. The 2d division had marched from the Walnut Springs, 
on the main road, [two o'clock, P. M., of the 20th,] and after mov- 
ing nearly directly west, and crossing the Monclova and Pescaria 
roads above the city, the troops reached a hill, on which they en- 
camped for the night. Near this was the Mexican ambuscade of Sep- 
tember 20th, from which was detached the party that skirmished in 
the evening. Early on the 21st they reached, by a south-westerly 
course, the Saltillo road, where the charge of cavalry took place. 
After the repulse of the Mexicans, Worth moved the troops nearly 
twelve hundred yards along the road, and prepared for assaulting 
the works. 

This position led directly to the city, which lay south-east at a 
distance of perhaps twenty-five hundred yards. Between General 
Worth and the nearest point to the town arose Independence Hill, 
•defended by the Bishop's Palace, and a redoubt, both commanding 
the road. South of the Saltillo road, and running parallel to it, is 
the Arroyo San Juan, a small stream branching from the main river 
of that name. South of the stream, and bordering upon it, is Fede 
ration Hill, defended by Fort Soldada and another work. 

HUS Worth was completely isolated 
from the main portion of the army, 
except through the route by which 
he came. To reach Monterey, and 
act in conjunction with the com- 
manding general, it was necessary to storm 
an almost impregnable fortress, to march 
along roads swept by galling fires, and at 
the same time to keep in check large bodies 
of cavalry and infantry, posted at advantageous positions in the open 
country. Besides this, a large force might, at any time, approach 
from Saltillo and cut off all retreat ; an event which would render 
any attempt to force a way back extremely critical. Worth's duties 
were peculiar and arduous ; on their issue depended his fame as a 
soldier, the safety of his division, and perhaps the final result of the 
operations against Monterey. 

As the forts on Federation Hill lay nearest his position, Worth de- 
termined on attacking them first. He accordingly despatched, for 
this purpose, Captain Smith, with three hundred men, composing six 
companies of Texas rangers, and three of the artillery battalion. At 
noon, while the troops stood ready to march, Worth rode along their 
front, and, by a few words, nerved each heart to ita apparently des- 
perate task. Soon after they were slowly moving along the Saltillo 
road, towards extensive fields of corn and sugar cane. These they 




STORMING OF FEDERATION HILL. 293 

entered^ in order to screen their march from the enemy's observation, 
and falling into single file, proceeded rapidly towards the river. Be- 
fore reaching it, the roar of cannon from the hill gave notice that 
they were observed, and that the remainder of their march must be 
through sheets of deadly fire. But, animated by their intrepid cap- 
tain, they paused not for a moment, but, reaching the water's edge, 
dashed in waist deep, while cannon shot and musketry were plung- 
ing and foaming in every direction. At this moment the firing 
seemed redoubled ; the brow of the hill was lost in dense smoke, 
while flash after flash of quick flame, followed by rattling volleys, 
glared through the gloom. Through this terrible storm the Ameri- 
cans rushed, and gained the opposite bank without loss ; a circum- 
stance that appears almost miraculous. 

Federation Hill is nearly four hundred feet high, very steep, and 
at its base almost entirely covered with dense chaparral. On reach- 
ing these thickets, the men were halted in order to prepare for 
the ascent. During this interval, large reinforcements of Mexicans 
were poured into the fort, and companies of infantry and sharp- 
shooters descended from it, and stationed themselves along ledges 
and eminences. These were to gall the assailants as they advanced, 
while, at the same time, the artillery from above swept the road in 
front. 

On observing this, General Worth ordered the 7th infantry, under 
Captain Miles, to support Captain Smith, by a movement which 
would divert the attention of the enemy. Taking the direct road to 
the hill, Miles came within range of the Mexican fire before Captain 
Smith, and after a short skirmish at the foot of the hill, during which 
he firmly maintained his position, halted and awaited the arrival of 
the first detachment. The two commands were soon joined, and 
having reached the hill-side, Were secure from the artillery, which 
could not be inclined so as to reach them. 

aHE party now commenced the ascent. Gradu- 
ally the enemy's musketry opened upon 
them, and was answered by the Texan rifle. 
As the troops swept on, the battle grew 
louder and more exciting. One detachment 
of the Mexicans followed another down the 
cliffs to convenient places for harassing the 
assailants. A dark ring of smoke settled 
around the centre of the hill, and at length 
volley after volley of rattling fire-arms, the shouts of combatants, the 
hurry of marching, and dashing of cavalry, bounding and echoing 
along the slope, told that the action had reached its height. After a 
2b2 




294 



TAKING OFFORT SOLDADA. 




Colonel Hays. 



fierce struggle the enemy began to give way, and soon they were 
in slow retreat up the hill, followed by the shouting Americans. As 
the latter neared the fort, the terrified garrison shrunk before them ; 
and soon the advance rushed through its gates, tore down the 
colours and erected the American flag. A shout of victory went 
up from every voice, and was answered by joyful spectators near 
General Worth. A nine-pounder was captured, which had been 
overturned by the enemy for the purpose of throwing it down the hilL 
The enemy retreated to Fort Soldada ; and Worth ordered Gene- 
ral Smith, with the 5th regiment and a party of Texas rangers, under 
Colonel Hays, to assist Captain Smith in taking it. The combined 
forces rushed along the sides of the hill, with deafening cheers, drove 
all opposition before them, and entered almost simultaneously into 
the fort. The enemy had not yet evacuated it, when the colours of 
the 5th infantry were planted on the walls, followed almost imme- 
diately by those of the 7th. One nine-pounder was captured, to 



STORMING OF INDEPENDENCE HILL. 295 

gether with mules, camp equipage, and ammunition. The garrison 
was computed at fifteen hundred, and its loss was severe. The 
Americans had eighteen wounded — two mortally. The guns of both 
forts were immediately turned upon the Bishop's Palace, which was 
separated by a valley of several hundred yards width. The evening 
was dark and chilly ; and soon after the troops lay down, rain com- 
menced pouring in torrents, attended by heavy thunder and lightning. 
Exposed to this storm, without food or shelter, lay the weary assail- 
ants of Federation Hill, during the night of the 21st. 

Severe as had been the labours of this day, they were understood 
by 'all to be but the prelude of more terrible ones on the following 
day. The heights on Independence Hill were still occupied by the 
enemy, and the works by which it was surrounded were to all ap- 
pearances impregnable. The hill itself is between seven and eight 
hundred feet high, and not only the most inaccessible height from 
its almost perpendicular ascent — covered as it is with ledges of rock, 
some four or five feet high, and low, thick, thorny bushes — but also 
the most important, as commanding all the western approaches, and 
by a gradual descent from the crest of the hill of about three hundred 
and fifty or four hundred yards, south-east course along the ridge, 
leading to the Bishop's Palace, which it also commands and over- 
looks, thus forming a key to the entrance of Monterey on the western 
side. The height was defended by a piece of artillery, and during 
the night a large reinforcement had been thrown forward from the 
Bishop's Palace. 

The troops destined to carry these heights were roused from sleep 
at three A. M. of the 22d. The thunder-storm of the previous even- 
ing still lingered, the sky was concealed by a curtain of clouds, and 
a dense mist pervaded the atmosphere. This circumstance was fa- 
vourable to the Americans, as their main hope lay in surprising the 
enemy. Their party consisted of three companies of the artillery 
battalion ; three companies of the 8th infantry, and seven companies 
of the Texas rangers, under Hays and Walker. The whole, exclu- 
sive of the officers, numbered four hundred and sixty-five men, com- 
manded by Lieutenant-Colonel Childs. 

Very soon after being formed, the Americans commenced their 
march, moving in column, until they reached the base of the hill. 
Then Captain Vinton, with a company of the 3d artillery, one of the 
8th, and three companies of rangers under Walker, was detached to 
move as a left column up the north-west slope of the hill, while the 
remainder of the command, under their colonel, ascended on the 
south-west. The ascent was steep and difficult ; but the assailants 
pushed forward vigorously, until within about one hundred yards 



21)6 



TAKING OF THE BISHOPS PALACE. 



of the summit. Here a loud discharge announced that they were 
discovered ; and as they pressed onward the noise grew with their 
advance until the hill rocked with the stunning peals. On reaching 
the fort, a short but fierce struggle ensued, which terminated in the 
utter discomfiture of the garrison. The fugitives fled towards the 
Bishop's Palace, carrying with them a piece of cannon. The Ameri 
cans on account of their exhausted condition did not pursue. During 
the ascent, two of their noblest spirits had fallen. Captain R. A. 
Gillespie, and Herman S. Thomas, of the rangers. The former had 
been the first man to enter Fort Soldada on the previous day. 

FAVOURABLE position to play 
upon the palace was now taken by 
Lieutenant Roland, who opened his 
howitzer upon that pile with terrible 
effect. While this was going on, the 
advance was increased to six compa- 
nies, and placed under charge of 
Captain Vinton. That skilful officer 
so disposed his troops as to provoke 
the enemy to sally upon his line, in 
which case he designed a bayonet 
charge, which would throw them into 
such confusion as would enable his men 
to enter the Palace with them. The 
event answered his expectation. A 
heavy Mexican force poured from the works, and, forming in front 
of the principal gate, came down in one dense mass on the American 
infantry. The latter poured in a heavy fire, followed soon by the 
murderous rifle blast of the Texas rangers. Then followed the 
charge. The Mexicans were broken and chased down the sides 
of the hill in wild disorder ; while the victors, rushing forward with 
loud shouts, entered the Palace before the gates could be closed. A 
short struggle ensued within the walls ; but it ended, and the noise 
of battle gave way to the shout of victory. The Bishop's Palace was 
gained. 

In this assault the Americans lost six killed and fifteen wounded ; 
the enemy one hundred and eighty. The whole division, except the 
Texas rangers, moved up to the Palace, and spent the night within 
its walls. During the evening, the troops were employed in taking 
care of the wounded — the enemy's as well as their own. 

Thus by a series of well planned and brilliant movements, in the 
face of obstacles which at first appeared insurmountable, General 
Worth had obtained full possession of three of the enemy's batteries, 




GENERAL WORTH. 



297 



the stronghold of the Bishop's Palace, seven pieces of artillery, two 
standards, a large quantity of ammunition and intrenching tools, and 
what was of still greater importance, the entire occupation of the Sal- 
tillo road, and a complete command of all the western portion of the 
city of Monterey. He had established a reputation for bravery and 
generalship which would place him on a level with any officer in the 
army of occupation ; and, indeed, much of the fame he has subse- 
quently won, is owing to the effect produced upon himself by the 
operations at Monterey, and his anxiety to preserve unsullied the 
laurels which he there won. 




General Worth at Monterey. 



38 




Monterey from the Bishop's Palace. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



STORMING OF MONTEREY. 



GENERAL description of the defences of 
Monterey has already been given. It may 
not be uninteresting to recapitulate and 
specify more particularly, the principal points 
attacked by the first and third divisions of 
the American army. 

The southern portion of the city is washed 

by the Arroyo San Juan, while the northern 

spreads out into open country. The east 

and west boundaries are parallel, running 

north-east. At the northern extremity of a 

street which runs through the centre of the city, meet the Pescaria, 

Monclova, and Marin roads. Between the two latter, some distance 

north of the city proper, is the citadel, a large quadrangular struc- 

(298) 




STORMING OF FORT TENERIA 299 

ture, built of stone, very strong, and commanding all the approaches 
to Monterey on the north. At the north-east extremity of the city 
enters the Guadalupe road. A little south of this, and in advance 
of the eastern wall, is Fort Teneria, mounting four guns ; below this, 
Fort El Diablo, three guns, and still further south, other redoubts and 
lines of barricades. All these were to be carried before the Ameri- 
cans could, with security, commence their operations against the city 
proper. 

On the night of the 20th, General Taylor placed in battery on the 
Marin road, a ten inch mortar, and two twenty-four pound howitzers, 
to open upon the town and citadel on the following morning, so as 
to favour the movement of the second division. On the 21st, after 
a camp guard of one company from each regiment had been ap- 
pointed, the army, numbering thirty-five hundred, marched from 
camp towards the mortar battery. Here May's dragoons and the 
Texas rangers, under General Henderson, were thrown to the right, 
to reinforce Worth if necessary. A command of six hundred and 
forty-nine men, consisting of two regiments and a battalion, was 
placed under direction of Colonel Garland, for the purpose of divert- 
ing the garrison, and if possible carrying one of the strong holds. 
Accompanying this force, was the light artillery battery of Captain 
Bragg, and Major Mansfield, Captain Williams, and Lieutenant Pope 
of the engineers. Moving in a south-westerly direction, Colonel 
Garland crossed the Guadalupe road, and reached a secure place 
near the city, where he halted. Major Mansfield and Lieutenant 
Pope were sent in advance with two companies to make a recon- 
noissance. They had proceeded but a little distance, when they were 
fired upon from Fort Teneria; and immediately after a large body 
of lancers began skirmishing with muskets. To support the detach- 
ment, Garland pushed forward with his whole command, through a 
double fire from the fort and citadel, and was soon engaged with the 
lancers. Captain Bragg was ordered forward, and moving at full 
gallop through a terrible fire, he reached a narrow lane, and opened 
his artillery upon the fort and barricades. In answer to this, all the 
enemy's forts poured forth a terrific cannonade of grape, canister, 
and round shot, and the Americans melted away by scores. Amid 
this shower of death, the Americans rushed forward, until their loss 
became so great that the major was obliged to order a retreat. He 
himself was wounded, and scarcely an officer of the 3d regiment 
escaped unhurt. Among the most distinguished of those who fell, 
were Major Lear, commanding the 3d infantry, Major Barbour, Cap- 
tains Field and Williams, and Lieutenant Irwin. In the retreat, Cap- 
tain Bragg lost several men, besides four horses killed and seven 



300 STORMING OF FORT TENERIA. 

wounded. Fortunately, Captain Backus, of the 1st infantry, gained 
with his company a stone tannery, the roof of which looked directly 
into the gorge of Fort Teneria, at a distance of two hundred yards. 
From this his men poured a most destructive fire into the redoubt, 
and the building in its rear, thus contributing in no little degree to 
the capture of those places. 

Meanwhile, being apprized of the struggle with Colonel Garland, 
General Taylor sent to his assistance a reinforcement, consisting of 
the Ohio regiment, under Colonel Mitchell, a portion of Hamer's 
brigade, under Colonel Campbell, and Colonel Davis's Mississippi- 
ans — the whole under the direction of General Butler. This officer 
despatched General Quitman with the Mississippi brigade and that 
of General Hamer, in the direction of the city, and then advanced cau- 
tiously towards the scene of conflict. Here he soon became exposed 
to the enemy's fire, and after advancing a few squares, he met Major 
Mansfield, and received from him information of the failure of his 
attack. The major advised an immediate retreat. Butler communi- 
cated this to the commanding general, who ordered him to fall back ; 
but soon after, on information being received that General Quitman 
had stormed a strong battery and a stone house, the order was with- 
drawn. 

On leaving General Butler, General Quitman had marched towards 
Fort Teneria, through a fire from all the enemy's positions, more ter- 
rible than any which the Americans had yet witnessed. Musketry, 
grape, canister, and round shot swept every lane and avenue, rattling 
over the stony pavements, and crossing in whirling streams at every 
corner. The ground rocked and heaved as though in the convulsion 
of an earthquake. The heavy discharges fell on the stunned ear 
without intermission, and thick folds of smoke rolled up like moun- 
tains towards heaven, lighted only by the lurid flashes of cannon. 
Amid this fearful storm, where the voice of command was drowned 
in that of death and havoc, Quitman moved forward his staggering 
lines, which thinned and opened at every step. Four companies of 
the 4th infantry lost one-third of their officers and men by a single 
discharge, and fell back on the rear. But the passions of the Ameri- 
cans were wound to the highest pitch, and throwing down every 
impediment, they rushed with loud shouts towards the fort. Gradu- 
ally the column became enveloped and lost in smoke, which, lifting 
occasionally, again displayed the troops moving rapidly up to the 
cannon's mouth. On arriving within three hundred yards, they 
opened a fire from their rifles, which continued half an hour. The 
Mexicans, sure of victory, now flung forth a new flag, and poured 
forth their showers of grape and musketry with unintermitted rapidity. 



STORMING OF FORT TENER1A. 



303 




General Butler. 



At sight of this defiance, Lieutenant-Colonel McClung shouted the 
word " charge," and in the same moment the stern voice of Colonel 
Davis was heard echoing it along his line. Breasting the withering 
storm, the command rushed forward, over dead and falling, and came 
like an avalanche upon the fort. McClung, sword in hand, leaped 
the ditch, mounted the wall, and with one more step was hand to 
hand with his foe. A tide of exasperated warriors poured after him, 
and in a few minutes their wild shouts, soaring above the pealing of 
cannon, told of the hard-earned victory. The Mexicans took refuge 
in a strong building, known as the distillery, whence they opened a 
fire of musketry ; but this was speedily captured by Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel McClung. Five pieces of artillery were captured, a quantity of 
ammunition, and thirty prisoners, including three officers. McClung 
being severely wounded, Colonel Davis assumed command, and led 
the brigade towards Fort Diablo, until recalled by General Quitman. 
Thus, after a most desperate and bloody conflict of more than 
two hours, was one of the enemy's strong holds carried by stoim, 
notwithstanding the obstinate resistance they maintained. Consider- 
ing that it was the first time that the troops of General Butler's 



304 THE BALTIMORE BATTALION. 

division were ever brought into action — sustaining as they did, a 
desperate struggle against a sheltered and inaccessible foe — unpro- 
tected and bared to the storm of the murderous artillery of the enemy, 
which, although it swept one-fifth of their number from the ranks, 
could not cause them to shrink for an instant from a steady advance, 
their conduct on this occasion proves to the world the undaunted 
gallantry of our citizen soldiers, who have won for themselves the 
reputation of veteran troops. The charge led by the Mississippi rifle 
regiment upon Fort Teneria, without bayonets, has gained for the 
state a triumph which stands unparalleled. 

Meanwhile Colonel Garland's command had been exposed to a 
destructive fire from the second and third forts. An officer of the 
Baltimore battalion thus describes the operations of that body, prior 
to its being ordered by Major Mansfield to retire:* "I saw Colonel 
Watson shouting, but it was impossible to hear a command, owing 
to the deafening roar of cannon and musketry. The head of our 
column changed its direction, and I knew at once that the point of 
attack was changed, and ran in front of my company to intercept the 
head of my column. I reached it as Colonel Watson was dismount- 
ing from his horse, which the next moment fell from a shot. The 
colonel cried out to his men — ' Shelter yourselves, men, the best way 
you can.' At this time the battalion was scattered over the space of 
about an acre, the men lying down. At first the shot flew over their 
heads, but the guns were soon depressed so as to take effect. 

" I was lying close to Colonel Watson, along-side of a hedge, when 
he jumped up, exclaiming, 'Now is the time, follow me.' We were 
now in a street or lane, with a few houses on either side, and within 
a hundred yards of three batteries, which completely raked it, in ad- 
dition to which, two twelve-pound guns were planted in the castle 
on the right, and completely enfiladed the whole distance we had to 
make. Add to this the musketeers on the housetops, in the barri- 
v. ades at the head of the street up which we advanced, and at every 
cross street, and some idea may be formed of the deluge of balls 
poured upon us. Men and horses fell at every step of our advance. 
Cheers, shrieks, groans, and shouts of command added to the din, 
and uniting with the roar of cannon, became absolutely deafening. 

" We had advanced up the street under this awful and fatal fire 
nearly two hundred yards, when we reached a cross street, at the 
corner of which, all who had succeeded in getting thus far, halted, as 
if by mutual consent. While shaking Colonel Watson by the hand, 
as he complimented me, a shower of grape, round, and canister shot 

* The style of description differs from the original. 



THE BALTIMORE BATTALION. 



305 




Colonel Watson. 



came from the corner above, cutting down five officers, and I know 
not how many privates. Each man sought some place of apparent 
shelter. I sat down on the ground, with my back to the wall of a 
house. On my left were two men, nearly torn to pieces. One of 
them was lying flat on his back, with his legs extending farther into 
the street than mine. A shower of grape came crashing along and 
tore one of his wounded legs nearly off. He reared up, shrieked, 
and fell back dead. I did not move, satisfied that one place was as 
safe as another. In a few minutes I saw Hart, our colour sergeant, 
pass us with his right arm shattered ; and he was followed by one 
of the colour guards, bearing our battalion flag — the first American 
flag in the city of Monterey. * * * * The firing still continued without 
the slightest intermission, whilst we remained at this memorable cor- 
ner, which was, perhaps, for fifteen minutes. * * * * I was ordered 
to shelter my men from the fire, and await further orders ; and lead- 
ing them into the ditch, I clambered over the ramparts to observe 
what was going on. My appearance was greeted with about a dozen 
musket balls, which greatly accelerated a retrograde movement, and 
2c2 39 



306 



GENERAL BUTLER WOUNDED 




General Butler wounded. 



I sat down quietly with ten feet of ground between me and the ene- 
my's shot. It was the first spot I had been in for more than two 
hours, that afforded security to the men. It was here I learned the 
death of Colonel Watson. 

" We had been there for about a quarter of an hour when Captain 
Ridgely's battery came up to shelter itself. Its appearance was the 
signal for the castle to open upon us, the fire from which killed one 
of the horses and wounded a man. Being ordered to support Cap- 
tain Bragg in his efforts to cut off some lancers, we succeeded in 
killing six of them, and driving the others back to the city." 

During this time, General Butler's command was engaged in a 
spirited struggle with the enemy. Hearing of the capture of Fort 
Teneria, he had led his command against El Diablo, moving through 
a most destructive fire to within one hundred yards of that work. 
Here the converging fires from the different batteries swept through 
their ranks, while flanking fires of musketry poured forth deadly 
showers, which covered the space through which the Americans had 
still to pass. General Butler was severely wounded in the leg, but 
would not retire until he was exhausted through loss of blood, when 
\he command devolved on Brigadier-General Hamer. On finding the 
fort stronger than had been anticipated, this officer withdrew his men. 

Fragments of the various regiments engaged were now under cover 
of Fort Teneria and some buildings on its front and right. The field 
batteries of Captains Bragg and Ridgely were also partially covered 
by the fort. An incessant fire was kept up on this position by the 



REPULSE OF THE LANCERS AND CAVALRY. 307 



guns of El Diablo, and other works on its right, and from the citadel. 
Here also General Twiggs, though quite unwell, joined the com- 
mander-in-chief, and was instrumental in causing the artillery cap- 
tured from the enemy to be placed in battery and served by Cap- 
tain Ridgely against El Diablo, until the arrival of Captain Webster's 
howitzer battery which took its place. 

Meanwhile a mixed command, collected from the 1st, 3d, and 4th 
regiments and Baltimore battalion, were ordered to enter the town, 
penetrate to the right, and carry if possible the second fort. This 
party, under Lieutenant-Colonel Garland, advanced beyond a bridge 
called Purisima, when, finding it impracticable to gain the rear of the 
fort, they withdrew by order of the commanding general. During 
the absence of this column, a cavalry force appeared near the citadel, 
to oppose which, Captain Bragg, with a section of his artillery, was 
advanced. The lancers had previously charged upon the Ohio and 
a part of the Mississippi regiments, near some fields at a distance 
from the edge of the town, and had been repulsed with considerable 
loss. During the afternoon a cavalry party on the opposite side of 
the river was also dispersed by Captain Ridgely's battery. 

At the approach of evening all the troops that had been engaged 
in the city were ordered back to camp, except Captain Ridgely's bat- 
tery, and the regular infantry of the 1st division, which were detailed 
under Lieutenant-Colonel Garland, as a guard during the night for 
the captured works. A battalion of the 1st Kentucky regiment rein- 
forced this command. Intrenching tools were procured, and addi- 
tional strength was given to the works, and protection to the men, 
by working parties during the night. 

HUS the main object proposed by Ge- 
neral Taylor in the morning had been 
effected. A powerful diversion had 
favoured the operations of the 2d divi- 
sion, one of the enemy's advance works 
had been carried, and a strong foot- 
hold secured in the town. But this had 
been attained by the loss in killed and 
wounded of three hundred and ninety- 
four, including some of the most gal- 
lant and promising officers of the army. 
" It was a horrible sight," says an eye- 
witness, " to one not accustomed to 
blood and carnage. The dead lay in 
almost every possible position; some of the wounded were scream- 
ing in agony as they were hauled off in wagons ; others lay on the 




308 PURSUIT OF THE LANCERS. 

ground begging for water and assistance ; some hobbled along 
assisted by comrades ; and a few, as we passed, turned a mute but 
imploring glance as if they desired help, and knew it would not 
be given. At the moment it seemed to me, feeling was dead — the 
regiment was marching rapidly to the fort, the enemy was blazing at 
it with their cannon, and in a few minutes all expected to be in the 
midst of a new conflict. Men's nerves were strung to a high pitch, 
and no one knew but in an hour he might be laid out also. 

" About six o'clock, P. M. a chilly rain commenced, which in a little 
while increased to a terrific storm. During a part of the night, the 
encampment was almost covered with water ; no tents had been pre- 
pared for the wounded, who were crowded in with their comrades ; 
surgical operations were in progress all night, and many a heroic 
soldier, who had that day been cool and collected amid the uproar 
of battle, then felt as his ear was pierced with the groans of his com- 
rades, that the scenes of the battle-field are not the whole of war." 

On the 22d no active operations took place in the lower part of 
the city. The sad duty of burying the dead and administering to the 
wounded occupied the principal part of the morning. The enemy's 
works kept up a spirited fire at the garrison of Fort Teneria, and at 
parties within their range, and were answered by Captain Ridgely's 
battery and the guns of the fort. While this was going on, a scout 
reported a body of Mexican lancers in the plain, and General Hen- 
derson, with the 2d regiment of Texan rangers, was sent in pursuit. 
He was unable to find the enemy. The garrison of the fort were 
relieved at noon by General Quitman's brigade of volunteers — 
Ridgely's battery alone remaining. At intervals during the afternoon, 
and until after nine o'clock at night, the enemy kept up from their 
fortifications and from the citadel, discharges of shells, grape, and 
round shot. 

N the forenoon, the commander and his 
troops were gratified by the sight of Worth's 
operations against the Bishop's Palace. 
At that distance, the long lines of troops 
gaily dressed, the arms of the different 
squadrons, glittering in the morning sun, 
the rapid evolutions, the volumes of smoke, 
and the final charges, altogether presented 
a grand and soul-stirring spectacle. At 
the appearance of the national flag on the 
Palace, a wild shout of joy burst from the exulting spectators, and 
was answered in sullen defiance by the roar of the enemy's batteries. 
During the day, General Quitman planned several attempts upon the 




THIRD DAY OF THE SIEGE. 



309 



adjacent works ; but in evening his attention was attracted by a line 
of about fifteen hundred Mexican infantry, at some distance in the 
rear of their works. The presence of this force amounting to nearly 
three times the general's numbers, and posted for the evident pur- 
pose of protecting the works, induced him to abandon the hope of 
forcing the works without reinforcements, During the night several 
reconnoissances were made in the direction of El Diablo; while 
within the city, rockets and other signals kept up a communication 
between the enemy's different stations. 

Hitherto we have traced the operations of the two sections of the 
army, acting independently. The duties of each being entirely dis- 
tinct, and acting at stations naturally separate, it has been easy to 
avoid confusion in the description. On the 21st General Taylor's 
troops carried Fort Teneria, and penetrated into the city. On the 
same day, but rather later in the morning, Worth's division stormed 
the two forts on Federation Hill. On the following morning [22d] 
Worth stormed and took the Bishop's Palace, thus completing the 
operations for which his division had been detached, at the same 
time opening an undisputed road to the western part of the city. On 
the same day, no advance was made by Taylor's troops in the siege. 

HE third day's operations were en- 
tirely different. Each general di- 
rected his efforts to the same object, 
the focus of attack being the city 
itself. Each, it is true, acted as be- 
fore, independently of the other ; 
Worth entering on the west side, 
and penetrating thence to the cen- 
tre, and General Taylor approaching 
him from the east, yet it was but a 
combined attack upon the same 
point. This fact makes the opera- 
tions of that day appear complexed 
and fragmentary, and is likely to 
lead to confusion in the description. To avoid this as much as pos- 
sible, the movements of each general will be detailed by themselves, 
the reader bearing in mind that they were conducted simultaneously. 
Early on the 23d, General Quitman discovered that the enemy 
had abandoned, during the night, El Diablo and the works adjacent. 
The loss of the Bishop's Palace had, no doubt, led to this step, bv 
pointing out the necessity of concentrating their forces within the in- 
terior strong holds. The general communicated this fact to the com- 
mander-in-chief, and despatched Colonel Davis, with a portion of 




310 



TAYLORS OPERATIONS. 




Colonel Jefferson Davis. 



his command, assisted by Lieutenant-Colonel Anderson, to take pos- 
session of the deserted works. This was accordingly done. The 
enemy had withdrawn their artillery, so that nothing of value was 
captured except some ammunition and a few prisoners. 

From this work, which commanded a view of the cathedral and 
part of the grand plaza, another redoubt, triangular or half mooned, 
was observed, connected with heavy stone buildings and walls ad- 
joining the block of the city. General Quitman was ordered to 
advance towards these defences, and, if practicable, to occupy them. 
As this permission was not absolute, the general determined to act 
cautiously, sending out a party of riflemen, under Lieutenant Graves, 
to reconnoiter, supported at some distance by a company of Tennessee 
infantry, under Captain McMurray. It was soon reinforced by four 
companies of the Mississippi and Tennessee regiments, under Colonel 
Davis. As the colonel advanced, armed men were seen flying at 
his approach. Upon reaching the triangular redoubt, he found it 
open and exposed to the fire of the enemy from the stone buildings 



taylor's operations. 311 

and walls in the rear ; and, on reporting the same to General Quit- 
man, he received orders to post his command as he might deem ne- 
cessary, and await further instructions. 

In reconnoitering the place, Colonel Davis received several shots 
from the enemy, which he answered by files of riflemen who had ad- 
vanced to the slope of a breastwork erected across the street. The 
enemy increased their fire, and soon all the forts within reach were 
in full blast ; while, on the other hand, the Americans, being rein- 
forced, poured forth deadly volleys of rifle shot and musketry, which 
did terrible execution amid the enemy's ranks. In order to dislodge 
the skirmishers from the house-tops, the Texans rushed from door to 
door, breaking through buildings, and through inside walls, and 
mounting to a level with the enemy, picking them off with the rifle. 
Meanwhile those in the streets rushed from square to square, amid 
sweeping showers of grape and musketry, cheered on by Generals 
Lamar and Henderson, and Colonel Davis. Buildings, streets, and 
courts, were occupied without much loss, until, after an engagement 
of five hours, the Americans found themselves within two squares of 
the grand plaza. At this point General Quitman became apprehen- 
sive that the troops might fall within range of Bragg's artillery, and 
ordered offensive operations to cease until the effect of the batteries, 
which had been planted in one of the principal streets, could be 
seen. Meanwhile the artillery, under Captains Bragg and Ridgely, 
had been doing good service, by demolishing some works in front, 
and playing constantly on the cathedral. 

Had General Taylor known the success of General Worth, who 
had then approached from the west to within two squares of the 
plaza, he could, no doubt, by a concerted movement with his bro- 
ther officer, have forced the city to terms that night. But each gene- 
ral was ignorant of his colleague's position ; and, accordingly, Gene- 
ral Taylor ordered his troops to withdraw to the evacuated works, 
intending to concert with General Worth a combined operation upon 
the town. Accordingly the troops fell back deliberately, and in good 
order, to their original positions ; Quitman's brigade being relieved 
after nightfall by that of General Hamer. On returning to camp, the 
commander-in-chief met an officer with the intelligence that Gene- 
ral Worth, induced by the firing in the lower part of the city, was 
about making an attack at the upper extremity, which had also been 
evacuated by the enemy to a considerable distance. A note from 
the general imparted the additional information, of his having ad- 
vanced to within a short distance of the principal plaza, and that his 
mortar was there, doing good execution upon the enemy's position 
Although regretting that he had not heard this before, General Tav 




312 worth's operations. 

lor did not deem it expedient to countermand his orders, and retired 
to camp. 

E now turn to the operations of General Worth, 
which, it should be repeated, were, during 
the greater part of their continuance, simul- 
taneous with those of the commander-in- 
chief. Before daylight of the 23d, General 
Worth ordered the 5th infantry to transport 
the captured nine-pounder from Fort Soldada 
to a hill overlooking the town. This was a 
task of such difficulty, as to consume the time 
until nine o'clock. The gun was soon in operation upon some 
lancers in the fields below, who were driven with loss, into the city. 
It was afterwards directed with some effect against the cathedral. 
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Meade and Captain McCulloch, with a small 
detachment, advanced to reconnoiter the city; and Major Brown, 
with a section of McCall's battery, a company of the artillery batta- 
lion, and two companies of rangers, were sent to guard the strong 
pass of the Saltillo road and the bridge across the stream. 

About ten A.M. a heavy firing was heard from the eastern quarter 
of the city. Its magnitude and continuance, together with minor 
circumstances, convinced General Worth that the commanding offi- 
cer was conducting a main attack, and that orders for his co-opera- 
tion, which he felt certain had been sent, had either miscarried in 
coming a circuit of six miles, or, what was more probable, had been 
intercepted by the enemy's numerous cavalry parties. Accordingly 
he lost no time in ordering his troops to commence an operation, 
which, unless otherwise directed, he designed executing partly under 
cover of the night. Two columns of attack were organized, to move 
along the two principal streets, leading from his position towards the 
grand plaza. The right column consisted of four companies of the 
7th infantry, and Captain Holmes, with a twelve-pound howitzer of 
McCall's battery, under Lieutenant Martin ; the left column, of four 
companies of the 8th infantry, under Captain Screven, with two six- 
pounders of McCall's battery. Colonel Hays's rangers were with the 
right column, those of Lieutenant-Colonel Walker with the left. 
Major Vinton, with four companies of the artillery battalion, formed 
the reserve. The whole was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel 
Childs. Worth's orders were to avoid the points swept by the ene- 
my's artillery ; to press on the first plaza (capella) ; to gain possession 
of the ends of the streets beyond it, then enter the buildings, and by 
means of picks and bars break through the longitudinal sections of 
the walls ; work from house to house, and mounting the roofs, to 




2 D 



40 



worth's operations. 315 

place themselves on the same, breast-high, with the enemy. The 
light artillery forming the reserve, was to follow at suitable intervals, 
covered by parties to guard the pieces. 

Colonel Childs, with the left column, reached the Plaza Capella 
without opposition; but on entering one in advance, [Plaza de 
Carne,] he was fired upon by musketry from the house-tops. The other 
column had also advanced without much interruption until within 
four squares of the grand plaza, when it experienced so terrible a 
fire as to render farther advance impossible. Soon after General 
Worth arrived in the Plaza de Carne, and intrusted the command to 
Brevet Brigadier-General Smith. The terrible scene that ensued, 
is so ably described by Reid, that we cannot do better than to quote, 
with some little alteration of the language. " Every street was bar- 
ricaded with heavy works of masonry, the walls being some three or 
four feet thick, with embrasures for one or more guns, which raked 
the streets ; the walls of gardens and sides of houses were all loop- 
holed for musketry ; the tops of the houses were covered with troops, 
who were sheltered behind parapets some four feet high, upon which 
were piled sand bags, for their better protection, and from which they 
showered down a hurricane of balls. 

" Between three and four o'clock it became evident, from the ces- 
sation of the firing in the opposite direction, that the enemy had 
become disengaged, and were consequently enabled to draw off men 
and guns to our side, as their fire had now almost doubly increased. 
The street-fight became appalling — both columns were closely en- 
gaged with the enemy, and steadily advanced, inch by inch — our 
artillery was heard rumbling over the paved streets, galloping here 
and there, as the emergency required, and pouring forth a blazing 
fire of grape and ball — volley after volley of musketry, united with 
continued peals of artillery, which was almost deafening. The artil- 
lery of both sides raked the streets, the balls striking the houses with 
a terrible crash, while amid the roar of battle were heard the battering 
instruments used by the Texans. Doors were forced open, walls 
were battered down, entrances made through the longitudinal walls, 
and the enemy driven from room to room and from house to house, 
followed by the shrieks of women and the sharp crack of the Texan 
rifles. Cheer after cheer was heard in proud and exulting defiance, 
as the Texans or regulars gained the house-tops by means of lad- 
ders, while they poured in a rain of bullets upon the enemy on the 
opposite houses. ************** 

" The column of Colonel Childs sustained a dreadful fire in the 
plaza, and while forcing its way up the streets. Amid this storm of 
destruction, the daring Captain Gatlin, of the 7th infantry, was se- 



316 



WORTHS OPERATIONS. 



merely wounded in the arm, while gallantly leading on his company. 
This column had now moved forward two squares, both sides of the 
plaza being occupied by our troops ; while Walker's Texans were 
working their way towards the enemy through that line of buildings 
by means of pickaxes and their rifles. Captains Screven and Mer- 
rill had advanced so far as to gain a line of buildings to the east, and 
were driving the enemy before them. The two companies of the 
5th were commanded by Lieutenants McPhail and Farrelly, who 
maintained their advanced position, keeping up a fire upon the enemy, 
occupying the houses in the vicinity, and in the next street beyond, 
which was used by the enemy as the principal thoroughfare to the 
citadel. ***************** 

"We had now gained possession of the city on the west side, to 
within one square of the cathedral plaza, where the Mexican forces 
were concentrated, having also carried a large building in the Plaza 
de Carne, which overlooked the principal defences in the city, on the 
roof of which were placed, during the night, two howitzers, for the 
purpose of raking the house-tops on the morrow." 

PARTICIPATOR in this ter- 
rible battle vividly describes 
the effect produced upon the 
inhabitants by the American 
artillery : 

" The flag of the Spanish 
consul was pierced in a hun- 
dred places ; the iron bow 
windows of the houses, which 
projected but a few inches 
into the streets, were torn and 
rent asunder by round shot. 
The city had been partially 
deserted by the inhabitants, 
still many women were seen 
in the doorways and streets, 
and even where the battle was raging, freely offering our men oranges 
and other fruits. They seemed impressed with the belief that we 
would conquer, and used this means to obtain our protection. Many 
ladies of the better class — the wives and daughters of civil function- 
aries, merchants, and officers of the army — remained in their houses, 
determined to abide the issue of the siege. In one room in particu- 
lar, into which our men had picked an entrance through a wall of 
massive thickness, a large number of females was found. They were 
alarmed to a degree painful to behold, filled as their ears had been 




WORTH'S OPE RATIONS. 31 ( ^ 

with stories of the brutality of the Americans of the north, so that it 
was with the greatest difficulty that we convinced them of their 
safety." 

General Worth continued his operations until after dark, when he 
received a communication from General Smith, stating that the latter 
could hold all his positions during the night. This determined Worth 
to withdraw none of his troops, save a few Texans on the river side 
of the town. The night-scene of the 23d was grand and melancholy. 
The thick darkness was often interrupted by flaming bombs, and the 
silence by the roar of cannon. " Soldiers and officers," says the ex- 
cellent authority we have several times quoted, " occupied the plaza 
and the tops of houses, keeping a strict guard upon the movements 
of the enemy. The Texans, under Hays, encamped at the base of 
the Bishop's Palace, and a strong picket guard was posted in the 
rear, while those under Walker kept their position near the post-office. 
At dark the mortar, which had been embedded in the cemetery, and 
masked by the church wall, opened its fire upon the grand plaza, 
under the direction of Major Munroe. The first bomb fell a little 
short; but the projecting charge being increased, produced exact 
results, which soon caused a return fire, with shells, from the enemy's 
howitzers. The night was cloudy, and the winds of a foreboding 
storm freshened on the sultry air ; scattered clouds chased each other 
through the sky ; below lay the city, wrapped in the drapery of dark- 
ness whose folds covered the dreadful scene of the carnage and ruin 
of its streets, where lay dead horses, demolished masonry, broken 
arms, and cast off accoutrements of soldiers. Batteries of artillery 
were drawn up in the plazas, in which, and on the tops of the sur- 
rounding houses, were sentineled our troops. Farther yet towards 
the cathedral, confusion and disorder marked the Mexicans' defeat ; 
beautiful gardens and villas lay in ruins ; their works of art were de- 
molished, and their dead lay on the house-tops and in the streets, 
while the grand plaza swarmed with their concentrated forces, 
and a desolation and despair prevailed among their army. For a 
moment all was hushed in darkness ; peace seemed to hover over 
the scene of ruin and strife, and waving her branch of olive, to 
command the contending parties to cease the wild war of blood- 
shed and devastation. It was but for a moment ; for soon bombs 
and shells were crossing each other, as they rose in the heavens to 
the height of their curve, gleaming through the air like fiery comets, 
and then bursting with a loud report. The view at this time, from 
the Bishop's Palace, was magnificent. No further incident oc- 
curred during the night. The wounded were removed to Arista's 
hacienda, which was converted into a hospital, and every prepara- 



320 



MORALESS LETTER TO TAYLOR. 




tion was made to renew the attack on the coming morning with re- 
doubled vigour." 

T noon of this day, while the battle 
was raging with great fury, General 
Taylor received from General Mo- 
rales, governor of the state of New 
Leon, the following communication : 

"As you are resolved to occupy the 
place by force of arms, and the Mexi- 
can general-in-chief is resolved to de- 
fend it at every cost, as his honour and 
duty require him to do, thousands of 
victims, who, from indigence and want 
of means, find themselves now in the 
theatre of war, and who would be use- 
lessly sacrificed, claim the right which, 
in all times and in all countries, hu- 
manity extends. As governor of the state, and a legitimate repre- 
sentative of the people, I state their case to you, and hope, from your 
civilization and refinement, that, whatever may be the event of the 
present contest, you will issue orders that families shall be respected, 
or will grant a reasonable time for them to leave the capital." 

Through a mistake of the Mexicans, this note was first sent to 
General Worth, who transmitted it to the commander-in-chief. The 
latter replied as follows : 

" The communication of your excellency, of this morning, I have 
just received, and in answer to your excellency, I have to inform 
you, that the rights of individuals who are not hostile, particularly 
women and children, will be respected as much as is possible in a 
state of warlike operations ; but they cannot be permitted to leave 
the city. The advantages achieved by the American arms are too 
decisive to permit of any other terms than the capitulation of the 
city ; and the sooner this is effected, the better for those interested." 
Thus, after three days' fighting, the Americans had driven an 
enemy nearly double their number from all their out-positions, and 
surrounded them in such a manner, that they must either surrender, 
or evacuate the city. Yet the citadel and grand plaza were the 
strongest defences of the town; and no one of the assailants imagined 
but that a more terrible drama than any yet witnessed was to be 
played on the morrow. 




CHAPTER XVIII. 



CAPITULATION OF MONTEREY. 



EFORE daylight on the 24th, the Texans recom- 
menced operations against the western side of the 
plaza. Soon a large portion of Worth's division 
were in the streets ; and long before the sun arose, 
the din of battle filled the streets, and stirred on the 
Americans to further and complete conquests. Sud- 
denly bugles were heard from the enemy's quarters, 
sounding a parley ; all offensive operations immediately ceased, and 
soon a white flag was seen approaching, together with several officers. 
It was borne by Colonel Moreno, inspector-general of the Mexi- 
can army, who also carried a letter addressed to General Taylor. 

41 (321) 




322 PROPOSITION TO SURRENDER. 

The colonel proceeded to Fort Diablo, whence he was conducted 
by Lieutenant-Colonel Rogers to Fort Teneria, and introduced to 
General Hamer. By that officer he was furnished with an escort to 
Walnut Springs, where General Taylor then was. He delivered to 
the commander-in-chief the following note from General Ampudia, 
written at nine o'clock the previous evening. 

" Having made the defence of which I believe this city susceptible, 
I have fulfilled my duty, and have satisfied that military honour 
which in a certain manner is common to all armies of the civilized 
world. 

" To prosecute the defence, therefore, would only result in distress 
to the population, who have already suffered enough from the misfor- 
tune consequent on war ; and taking it for granted, that the Ameri- 
can government has manifested a disposition to negotiate, I propose 
to you, to evacuate the city and its fort, taking with me the personel 
and materiel which have remained, and under the assurance that no 
harm shall ensue to the inhabitants who have taken a part in the 
defence." 

Immediately after reading this note, General Taylor is said to have 
expressed his determination not to comply with its request. His an- 
swer is annexed : 

" In answer to your proposition to evacuate the city and fort with 
all the personel and materiel of war, I have to state that my duty 
compels me to decline acceding to it. A complete surrender of the 
town and garrison, the latter as prisoners of war, is now demanded. 
But such surrender will be upon terms and the gallant defence of the 
place creditable alike to the Mexican troops and nation, will prompt 
me to make those terms as liberable as possible. The garrison will 
be allowed at your option, after laying down its arms, to retire to 
the interior on condition of not serving again during the war or until 
regularly exchanged. I need hardly say that the rights of con-com- 
batants will be respected. 

" An answer to this communication is required by twelve o'clock. 
If you assent to an accommodation an officer will be despatched at 
once under instructions to arrange the conditions." 

Such an answer was totally unexpected by Ampudia. Throughout 
the whole siege he had behaved in a manner strangely contrasting 
with his former boasting proclamations, and unworthy of the high 
trust granted him as commandant of a capital city. It is stated 
on good authority, that on receiving General Taylor's note, he 
evinced such unmanly timidity as authorized his officers to believe 
that he would surrender at discretion, and that it w?s alone through 
their earnest entreaties not to be so disgraced, that he consented still 



PROPOSED TERMS OF SURRENDER. 323 

to negotiate. Accordingly, long before the expiration of the time 
appointed by the American general for receiving an answer, he de- 
sired a personal interview at a house named by himself. This was 
agreed to by General Taylor, and at the appointed time and place 
the two commanders met, [September 24th,] each attended by several 
officers. After the usual preliminaries, Ampudia announced, as 
official information, that commissioners from the United States had 
been received by the government of Mexico, and that a revolution 
had taken place in his country, since his assuming command of Mon- 
terey, which virtually nullified the orders to defend that place. A 
conversation followed, during which General Taylor became con- 
vinced that Ampudia's object was merely to gain time, and conse- 
quently he arose to end the conference. One of the Mexican officers 
then suggested the appointment of several commissioners from each 
army, with power to negotiate terms of capitulation. Ampudia as- 
sented. Generals Worth and Henderson, and Colonel Jefferson 
Davis were named on the part of the Americans, and General J. La 
Ortega, General P. Requena and Senor M. La Llano, governor of 
the province, on that of the Mexicans. 

To these six individuals the negotiations for the fate of Monterey 
were intrusted. They possessed, in an eminent degree, the confi- 
dence of their respective commanders ; and both parties were grati- 
fied at the prospect of a speedy termination of active hostilities. 
General Taylor gave verbal instructions to his commissioners, on 
which they afterwards based the following articles. 

I. As the legitimate result of the operations before this place, 
and the present condition of the contending armies, we demand the 
surrender of the town, the arms and munitions of war, and all other 
public property within the place. 

II. That the Mexican armed force retire beyond the Rinconada, 
Linares, and San Fernando on the coast. 

III. The commanding general of the army of the United States 
agrees that the Mexican officers reserve their side arms and 
private baggage ; and the troops be allowed to retire under their 
officers without parole, a reasonable time being allowed to withdraw 
their forces. 

IV. The immediate delivery of the main work now occupied to 
the army of the United States. 

V. To avoid collisions, and for mutual convenience, the troops of 
the United States shall not occupy the town until the Mexican forces 
have been withdrawn, except for hospital purposes, &c. 

VI. The commanding general of the United States agrees not to 
advance beyond the line specified in the second section before the 



324 



AGREEMENT OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 





expiration of eight weeks, or until the respective governments can 
be heard from. 

The Mexican commissioners refused to yield the city on these 
terms, and presented a counter proposition, in which, among other 
material items, they demanded permission for their soldiers to retire 
into the interior with their arms. This was urged not only as a 
matter of soldierly pride, but of the ordinary courtesy extended by 
one gallant army towards another. As the American commissioners 
had no power to accede to such terms, the meeting rose to report 
disagreement. 

N hearing this result, and its cause, 
General Ampudia entered into a 
long address to prove that, al- 
though it was his anxious desire 
to avoid further bloodshed, yet the point 
of disagreement between the negotiators so 
far involved the honour of his country, that 
he could not yield. General Taylor hav- 
ing expressed his wish that no more blood 
might be shed, the commission met a 
second time, the Americans being author- 
ized to concede the small arms. 

The difficulty, however, was not yet settled. The Mexicans 
evinced that one concession had merely whetted their appetite for 
more, and they now demanded that the artillery might be withdrawn, 
since it would appear discreditable for that arm to remain, after all 
others had been withdrawn. The commission again rose. On ascer- 
taining the point of disagreement, that more was demanded than the 
middle ground upon which the negotiation had, out of courtesy, been 
placed, General Taylor arose, with a determination to close the con- 
ference. While crossing the room he was addressed by a Mexican 
officer, and some conversation ensued. At this time General Worth 
requested permission to address some remarks to General Ampudia, 
the spirit of which was — that which he had manifested throughout the 
negotiation — generosity and leniency, with a desire to prevent further 
bloodshed. After considerable conversation, the commission assem- 
bled once more, and, after much delay, agreed on the following terms : 
Art. I. As the legitimate result of the operations before this place, 
and the present position of the contending armies, it is agreed that 
the city, the fortifications, cannon, the munitions of war, and dl 
other public property, with the undermentioned exceptions, be sur- 
rendered to the commanding general of the United States forces, now 
at Monterey. 



TERMS OF CAPITULATION. 



325 



Art. II. That the Mexican forces be allowed to retain the following 
arms, to wit : the commissioned officers their side-arms ; the infantry 
their arms and accoutrements ; the cavalry their arms and accoutre- 
ments ; the artillery one field battery, not to exceed six pieces, with 
twenty-one rounds of ammunition. 

Art. III. That the Mexican armed forces retire, within seven days 
from this date, beyond the line formed by the pass of Rinconada, the 
city of Linares, and San Fernando de Presas. 

Art. IV. That the citadel of Monterey be evacuated by the Mexi- 
can, and occupied by the American forces, to-morrow morning, at 
ten o'clock. 

Art V. To avoid collision, and for mutual convenience, that the 
troops of the United States will not occupy the city until the Mexican 
forces have withdrawn, except for hospital and storage purposes. 

Art. VI. That the forces of the United States will not advance 
beyond the line specified in the 2d [3d] article before the expiration 
of eight weeks, or until the orders or instructions of the respective 
governments can be received. 

Art. VII. That the public property to be delivered shall be turned 
over, and received by officers appointed by the commanding gene- 
rals of the two armies. 

Art. VIII. That all doubts as to the meaning of any of the preced- 
ing articles shall be solved by an equitable construction, and on prin- 
ciples of liberality to the retiring army. 

Art. IX. That the Mexican flag, when struck at the citadel, may 
be saluted by its own battery 

FTER a short recess, the Ame- 
rican commissioners again re- 
paired to the room in which 
they had parted from the Mex- 
icans. The latter were tardy 
in joining them, as well as in 
completing the instruments of 
capitulation. The first six ar- 
ticles only had been agreed to, 
and the remaining three were 
added during this session. At 
a late hour the English original 
was handed to General Taylor, 
for his examination, and the 
Spanish original to Ampudia. 
Taylor signed the instrument, and delivered it to Colonel Davis, who 
returned to receive the Spanish copy, with the signature of General 
2E 




326 CAPITULATION OF MONTEREY. 

Ampudia, and to deliver the one having General Taylor's signature, 
so that each general might countersign the original to be retained by 
the other. Instead of signing the instrument, Ampudia came in per- 
son to meet the commissioners. To the astonishment of all, he began 
to dispute on many points which had been considered as settled, 
and evinced a disposition to make the Spanish instrument vary essen- 
tially from the English. After a tedious parley, the Mexican chief 
was requested to sign the copy prepared for his own commissioners, 
the English original being at the same time left with him, so that, 
according to promise, he might have it translated during the night, 
and be ready in the morning with a Spanish duplicate of the English 
copy left with him. The two would thus be made to correspond, 
and he would be compelled to admit his knowledge of the English 
original before he signed. 

The commission met on the following morning, when Ampudia 
renewed his efforts to gain something more than what was conceded 
by the original agreement. At his request the Americans had pre- 
viously adopted the word " capitulation," instead of " surrender," and 
he now wished to substitute " stipulation" for capitulation. It had 
now become evident that he did not wish to sign at all, but was 
merely quibbling about names and terms. It became necessary 
peremptorily to demand his immediate signing of the English instru- 
ment. The Spanish instrument first signed by Ampudia was de- 
stroyed in the presence of his commissioners, and the translation of 
the American instrument was countersigned by General Taylor and 
delivered. 

Thus the tedious and intricate operations before Monterey were 
brought to a close, and nothing further remained but for the Mexi- 
cans to resign the command to their victorious opponents. On the 
part of General Taylor the terms of capitulation were strictly observed, 
no soldier being permitted to enter the city, unless wounded, until 
the enemy had begun to leave it. 

The ceremony of evacuation commenced on the 25th. General 
Worth was intrusted with the superintendence of it. The citadel 
surrendered first. On each side of the road leading to it, the Ameri- 
can army was drawn up in line, accompanied by the commander-in- 
chief and other distinguished officers. Worth appointed a force, 
under brevet Brigadier-General Smith, to take possession of the forti- 
fication. As the time approached, the heavy roar of cannon mingled 
with the sounds of the Mexican bugle, and the swelling music from 
the military bands announced the commencement of the surrender. 
The tri-coloured flag was slowdy lowered, and soon unfolding 
proudly in its stead, amid the shouts of the victorious army, the 



EVACUATION OF MONTEREY. 



327 




General Worth. 



star-spangled banner was flung over the battlements. Sadly and 
silently the garrison moved from its gates, with their humiliated gaze 
bent towards the earth, and sustained apparently only by the wild 
uproar around. It was a thrilling scene ; and, as the veterans of 
Taylor's army filed towards the entrance, shout after shout rung, 
with the roar of artillery, and the enthusiasm of the Americans be- 
came almost uncontrollable. Strains of martial music exhilarated 
every spirit, and soon the immense pile, which had so often enabled 
a handful of men to resist an army, during the civil dissensions of 
Mexico, was in undisputed possession of the American troops. 

The city was evacuated by degrees. The first division of Ampu- 
dia's army marched out on the 26th ; the second division, commanded 
by Ampudia in person, on the following day ; and the remainder 
left on the 28th. The cavalry rode away in small detachments. 
They were accompanied by men, women, and children, of every 
grade, colour, and condition, on foot and riding, some carrying im- 
mense burdens, and others supported by their friends. A sadness 
was spread over the countenances of that motley assembly, and over 



328 LOSSES OP BOTH ARMIES. 

a few was the dark, determined expression which betokens mischief. 
Riding beside General Ampudia was Colonel Bailie Peyton, followed 
by Major Scott, of the 5th [American] infantry, and Lieutenants Deas, 
Hanson, Robinson, and McLaws. The chief evidently appeared 
uneasy, and he was observed frequently to throw his eyes round with 
a hurried, restless expression, as though fearful of treachery. 

When the enemy had retired, the American commander appointed 
General Worth commander of the city, and quartered his division 
within its walls. The remaining troops still encamped at Walnut 
Springs. The strength and number of the defences was, to both sol- 
dier and officer, a source of admiration and astonishment. In a former 
part of the narrative a description of the principal of these has been 
given ; but no description can convey any but a very faint idea of 
the fortifications of this famous city. From the east end, where 
General Taylor began his attack, to the main plaza in the centre, 
fort was piled on fort, to a degree of strength that seemed to laugh 
at any effort of artillery. Every house was a defence ; every roof a 
barricade ; the east half of the city was one great military pile. Com- 
munications were established between the rows of buildings, so that 
thousands of troops could pass and repass, unseen by an enemy, from 
the plaza to the extremity of the city, in perfect security. It must 
ever remain a matter of astonishment, that General Taylor's com- 
mand, after entering the city, was not utterly annihilated. Monterey 
was won at a sacrifice proportionate to its importance. The whole 
number of killed, wounded, and missing, was five hundred and 
sixty-one, of whom one hundred and fifty-eight were killed, three 
hundred and ninety-two wounded, and eleven missing. The total 
force of the assailants did not exceed seven thousand men. Neither 
the number of the enemy, nor their loss, has ever been correctly 
ascertained. At the commencement they probably exceeded ten 
thousand. Ampudia reported to the secretary of war a loss of five 
officers and one hundred and seventeen privates killed; twenty-three 
officers, two hundred and twenty-one men wounded ; one officer and 
eight men " injured," and sixty-three wounded ; making in all four 
hundred and thirty-eight. But this is doubtless much below the 
actual number. 

Having already described each movement of the American army, 
during the three days' battle, little need be said of its achievements 
by way of comment. All the causes which have been given as ex- 
planation to the remarkable fact that seven thousand men stormed 
the defences of Monterey, although garrisoned by a much superior 
number, must be narrowed down to one, the military superiority of 
the American soldier. Had the skill and bravery of the Mexican 



ampudia's despatch. 329 

been equal to those of his antagonist, it requires a mere effort of com- 
mon sense to determine that, by fair battle, the city could never have 
been carried No weakness, then, of the commanding general, no 
combination of unexpected events, fortuitous to the assailants, no 
effect of the loss of Federation and Independence Hills, can be 
pleaded as an adequate excuse for Mexican inefficieney, or in dero- 
gation of American superiority. Every fairly fought battle ever won, 
was won in consequence of military superiority ; it is the conscious- 
ness of this superiority that forms a sense of glory ; and the greater 
the degree in which it exists, the more the glory. Judging, then, by 
this rule, we arrive at the conclusion that the storming of Monterey 
was one of the most glorious achievements of modern warfare. 
General Ampudia announced the fall of Monterey in a letter con- 
trasting singularly with his pompous threatenings prior to the siege. 
In any civilized country he would have been court-martialed and 
shot for his most shameful and cowardly conduct during the whole 
assault ; but we find him, in the most cool and impudent manner, 
appropriating credit to himself, and excusing the capitulation by false- 
hoods which stand in direct contrast with his previous assertions. 

" On the morning of the 22d," he says, " General Taylor directed 
his columns of attack against the Bishop's Hill, an elevation command- 
ing the city, and although in their first advance they were repulsed in 
a skirmish, a full brigade of regular troops returned to the charge. Un- 
fortunately, two pieces of cannon and a mortar, which defended the 
position, got out of order, and became useless ; and although, as soon 
as advised of it, I sent a reinforcement of infantry, with two pieces 
of light artillery, to their aid, it reached the hill too late ; the enemy 
had already succeeded in obtaining possession of the castle. This 
accident compelled me to concentrate my force in the plaza, in order 
to present to the foe a more vigorous defence, and to repel on the 
23d, as was done, the assaults made by them through the streets and 
houses of the city. But as, under these circumstances, I suffered 
great scarcity of ammunition and provisions, and in spite of the ardour 
with which the entire army, both regulars and auxiliaries, were ani- 
mated, I proposed to the American general a parley, which resulted 
in an understanding by which the honour of the nation and the army, 
the personnel of the division under my command, its arms and equip- 
ments, were preserved. 

" This is a true statement of the operations of the campaign up to 
the 24th instant; and if an inadequate supply of means, and other 
circumstances, have led to this result, we have yet no cause for a 
moment's dismay, for the republic will now put forward all her ele- 
ments of greatness, and, with one single victory, which we may, 
2e2 42 




330 GENERAL SALAS's PROCLAMATION. 

shall, and must obtain, will solve the problem definitely in favour of 
our arms." 

The " great scarcity of ammunition," of which Ampudia com- 
plains, was such that, in the language of an eye witness, cords of it 
were found in the citadel alone ; and a careful writer says that the 
cathedral was piled as high as the surrounding houses with am- 
munition and military stores. Sixty thousand musket cartridges 
were taken from the citadel, and forty-two pieces of artillery from 
the city. The stores of Monterey would have supplied ten thousand 
men in active daily operations for more than a month. 

ENERAL MARIANO DE 
SALAS, on receiving in- 
formation of the fall of Mon- 
terey, issued a proclamation 
to the inhabitants of Mexico, 
announcing the fact, and exhorting all 
classes to unite in repelling the invaders. 
The language of this document is worthy 
of preservation. It was then regarded as 
the vain ebullition of the weak governor 
of a weak nation ; but subsequent opera- 
tions have shown that it was an actual 
transcript of Mexican character. By their perseverance under the 
most overwhelming defeats, the people of that country have echoed 
to this voice of their ruler, and shown that all that was necessary to 
success was power. Salas concludes with the following stirring 
appeal : 

" Partial disasters are of no importance ; the Spanish nation suf- 
fered much more in the space of six years, and the results of her 
heroic efforts, and the co-operation of all her sons, was that the bones 
of half a million of unjust invaders whiten the fields of the peninsula. 
Shall we become unworthy of independence by not showing ourselves 
sons worthy of our fathers ? That independence was achieved by us 
alone only after ten years of constancy ; and it is not possible that 
an organized nation should lose less strength than its oppressed sons, 
such as our first leaders were. 

" Mexicans ! The time to act has come. Will you suffer your 
population to be decimated, sending it to perish by handfuls on the 
frontier, and to perish less by the enemy's balls than by neglect ? 
The government will exert all its power in the defence of your rights, 
but it has a right to expect that indifference or inactive contempla- 
tion shall not be the recompense of its plan of operations ; for the 
nation would prefer that not one stone should be left upon another, 




POPULATION AND PRODUCTIONS. 



331 



rather than to hold its sovereignty, its rights, and its temples trampled 
under foot. The invincible general called by it to place himself at 
the head of the troops, is resolved not to survive the dishonours of 
his country." 

General Taylor established his head-quarters at Monterey, and took 
efficient measures to afford his troops some repose after their toilsome 
campaign. The city is admirably situated for health and recreation. 
The valley is not only most beautiful in point of scenery, but is rich 
in corn, sugar, oranges, grapes, figs, and other tropical productions. 
The population of the city, according to Mr. Poinsett, is fifteen thou- 
sand souls. " The valleys are fruitful and provisions abundant for 
the existing population. There is no want of cattle, sheep, and goats, 
in this part of Mexico, and the country between Monterey and Za- 
catecas abounds in flocks and herds. The latter is a mining district, 
and the capital, situated at the foot of an abrupt and porphyritic 
mountain, boasts of a noble cathedral, a magnificent town hall, and 
the best mint in Mexico. The mines are -all worked by English 
companies." 




Herdsman of Monterey. 




CHAPTER XIX. 



OPERATIONS CONSEQUENT ON THE CAPTURE OF MONTEREY. 



OME difficulties between the volunteer troops 
of the American army and the Mexicans, 
which occurred soon after the occupation of 
the city, are worthy of notice. Both parties 
were no doubt to blame. The citizens were 
exasperated at what they considered a wholesale 
robbery of their property, and determined to embrace 
all convenient opportunities to avenge it. Hence 
straggling Americans were in danger of assassination. On the other 
hand, the volunteers, unused to the strictness of camp discipline, and 
elated with signal success, were disposed to look unfavourably on 
those whom they had conquered, and to resent, fearlessly, any thing 
bearing the semblance of an insult. Such feelings led to frequent 
(332) 




COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE VOLUNTEERS. 333 




President Polk. 



hostile collisions, and finally to murder ; so that as early as the 29th 
of September, Governor Morales wrote to General Taylor, informing 
him that many complaints were daily made against the excesses 
committed upon the persons and property of the Mexicans by Ameri- 
can volunteers, and specifying three cases of murder just then com- 
mitted. The American commander made prompt inquiry, and 
ascertained the statement to be correct. He accordingly wrote back 
to the governor, acknowledging the fact, and signifying his determi- 
nation to use every exertion to arrest the evil, at the same time re- 
minding the governor of the impossibility of maintaining rigid dis- 
cipline in that branch of the service. In a few days, however, nearly 
all the volunteers were removed from the city ; and this circumstance, 
united with the exertions of Generals Taylor and Worth, soon arrested 
the evil. 

The terms of capitulation met with opposition from a quarter whence 



334 Taylor's letter to marcy. 

it was least expected. Government received information of the vic- 
tory with marked displeasure. Even in the hall of congress disap- 
probation was expressed, and President Polk refused to sanction the 
clause providing for eight weeks cessation of hostilities. Notice of 
this was soon communicated officially to the general, together with 
orders to resume active operations immediately. In vindication of 
his course he wrote to the government an able letter, stating the rela- 
tive force and condition of himself and the enemy during the siege, 
and the circumstances which had induced him to sign the capitula- 
tion. " Although," he says, " the main communication with the 
interior was in our possession, yet one route was open to the Mexi- 
cans throughout th^ operations, and could not be closed, as were also 
other minor tracks and passes through the mountains. Had we there- 
fore insisted on more rigorous terms than those granted, the result 
would have been the escape of the body of the Mexican force with 
the destruction of its artillery and magazines, our only advantage 
being the capture of a few prisoners of war at the expense of valuable 
lives and much damage to the city. The consideration of humanity 
was present to my mind during the conference which led to the conven- 
tion, and outweighed, in my judgment, the doubtful advantages to be 
gained by a resumption of the attack upon the town. This conclu- 
sion has been fully confirmed by an inspection of the enemy's position 
and means since the surrender. It was discovered that his principal 
magazine, containing an immense amount of powder, was in the 
cathedral, completely exposed to our shells from two directions. The 
explosion of this mass of powder, which must have ultimately resulted 
from a continuance of the bombardment, would have been infinitely 
disastrous involving the destruction not only of Mexican troops but of 
non-combatants, and even our own people had we pressed the attack. 
" In regard to the temporary cessation of hostilities, the fact that 
we are not at this moment, within eleven days of the termination of 
the period fixed by the convention, prepared to move forward in 
force, is a sufficient explanation of the military reasons which dictated 
this suspension of arms. It paralyzed the enemy during a period 
when from the want of necessary means we could not possibly mo> c. 
I desire distinctly to state and to call the attention of the authorities to 
the fact, that with all diligence in breaking mules and setting up 
wagons, the first wagons in addition to our original train from Corpus 
Christi, (and but one hundred and twenty-five in number,) reached 
my head-quarters on the same day with the secretary's communica- 
tion of October 13th, — viz. the 2d instant, [November.] At the date 
of the surrender of Monterey, our force had not more than ten days' 
rations, and even now, with all our endeavours, we have not more 




Colonel Mav. 



MARCYS LETTER TO TAYLOR. 



337 




than twenty-five. The task of fighting and beating the enemy is 
among the least difficulties that we encounter — the great question of 
supplies necessarily controls all the operations in a country like this. 
At the date of the convention, I could not of course have foreseen 
that the department would direct an important detachment from my 
command without consulting me, or without waiting the result of the 
main operation under my orders." 

Such were the principal reasons which induced General Taylor to 
accept the terms of capitulation. Others were given by him in sub- 
sequent letters ; and his course was ably defended by General Worth, 
Colonel Davis, and other distinguished officers. It met with the de- 
cided approval of military men throughout the Union, as well as the 
approbation of the people in general. 

ITHERTO General Taylor 
had, by authority from go- 
vernment, purchased most 
of his supplies of the Mexi- 
cans, paying for them in 
cash at their full value. The authorities 
at home now began to fear that this 
^| course was directly opposed to the long 
cherished object of conquering a peace, 
inasmuch as the enemy might take ad- 
vantage of it to dispose of those pro- 
ductions, which their own people would 
not purchase, and so accumulate means to continue a war, which 
was little burden to themselves. Accordingly, in a letter written Sep- 
tember 22d, the secretary of war intimated these apprehensions to the 
general, recommending to him in future the policy of forced supplies. 
By this means, as the secretary thought, the people would be com- 
pelled to realize the evil of war, and thus a peace would speedily be 
conquered. " This mode," he affirms, "is the ordinary one, and you 
are instructed to adopt it, if in that way you are satisfied you can get 
abundant supplies for your forces ; but should you apprehend a diffi- 
culty in this respect, then you will adopt the policy of paying the 
ordinary price, without allowing to the owners the advantages of the 
enhancement of the price resulting from the increased demand. 
Should you apprehend a deficiency under this last mode of dealing 
with the inhabitants, you will be obliged to submit to their exactions, 
provided by this mode you can supply your wants on better terms 
than by drawing what you may need from the United States. Should 
you attempt to supply your troops by contributions, or the appropria- 
tion of private property, you will be careful to exempt the property 
2F 43 




338 



MARCY S LETTER TO TAYLOR. 



of all foreigners from any and all exactions whatsoever. The presi- 
dent hopes you will be able to derive from the enemy's country, 
without expense to the United States, the supplies you may need or 
a considerable part of them ; but should you fail in this, you will 
procure them in the most economical manner." 

In the same letter, Secretary Marcy unfolds part of the plan 
adopted by the department for prosecuting the war. Tamaulipas 
was to be taken at as early a day as possible, and the general's opi- 
nion asked as to the practicability of advancing towards the Mexican 
capital by the route he was then pursuing. The force for the inva- 
sion of Tamaulipas was to be placed under the immediate command 
of Major-General Patterson, accompanied by Brigadier-Generals Pil- 
low and Shields. A movement by way of Tampico was also hinted, 
to favour which, the general was exhorted to push forward with all 
convenient despatch to San Luis Potosi. 

General Taylor found it impossible to furnish the army with pro- 
visions by forced supplies from the inhabitants, and the project was 
consequently abandoned. 

N attack upon Vera 
Cruz was hinted to 
General Taylor as 
early as October 13th. 
"It is under consi- 
deration," says Secre- 
tary Marcy, in a letter 
of that date, " by the 
government, though 
not yet fully deter- 
mined, to land a con- 
siderable force in the 
vicinity of Vera Cruz, 
and invest that city. 
Should this be undertaken, a larger force of regular troops will be 
required than that assigned to the Tamaulipas expedition. It is de- 
sired to know, if, in your opinion, a detachment of two thousand of 
this description of force can be spared for that purpose from those 
under your command, without essentially interfering with your plans 
and operations. It is not desired, nor intended to weaken the force 
with you at Monterey, or to embarrass you by diverting troops from 
the Rio Grande, which you may deem necessary as reinforcements to 
the execution of your own contemplated operations." 

In reply to this letter, General Taylor detailed with accuracy the 
nature of the country through which the contemplated movements 




WORTH ADVANCES TO SALTILLO 339 

were to be made, the position of towns on the route, and the supplies 
to be expected from the inhabitants. To insure success against San 
Luis, he considered a column of twenty thousand troops necessary, 
half of which should be regulars. With regard to the simultaneous 
movement upon San Luis and Tampico, he considered that, on mili- 
tary principles, twenty-five or thirty thousand men would be required, 
with a train and military supplies in proportion. One paragraph of 
his letter, on a most important subject, is deserving of particular 
attention, as the views of the one best qualified to decide, and formed 
evidently from long and careful experience. "It may be expected," 
says the general, " that I should give my views as to the policy of 
occupying a defensive line, to which I have above alluded. I am 
free to confess, that in view of the difficulties and expenses attending 
a movement into the heart of the country, and particularly in view 
of the unsettled and revolutionary character of the Mexican govern- 
ment, the occupation of such a line seems to me the best course that 
can be adopted. The line taken might either be that on which we 
propose to insist as the boundary between the republics — say the Rio 
Grande — or the line to which we have advanced, viz. : the Sierra 
Madre, including Chihuahua and Santa Fe. The former line could 
be held with a much smaller force than the latter ; but even the line 
of the Sierra Madre could be held with a force greatly less than 
would be required for an active campaign. Monterey controls the 
great outlet from the interior ; a strong garrison at this point, with an 
advance at Saltillo, and small corps at Monclova, Linares, Victoria, 
and Tampico, would effectually cover the line." 

Agreeably to instructions from government, General Taylor noti- 
fied General Santa Anna, the Mexican commander-in-chief, that the 
armistice would terminate on the 13th of November. On the 12th 
of that month, General Worth, with two regiments of infantry, a 
company of volunteers, eight companies of artillery, and a field-bat- 
tery, moved from Monterey to Saltillo, which Taylor determined to 
make the limit of his offensive operations — at least for the present. 
On the following day, the commander followed in person, accom- 
panied by two squadrons of dragoons. When he reached the state 
of Coahuila, of which Saltillo is the capital, he received a message 
from the governor, Marie de Aguirre, remonstrating against the march 
of the Americans, and intimating that although no troops were at hand 
to support him, yet he protested " in the name of the state of Coa- 
huila against the government of the United States of the north, for 
the usurpation of the territory occupied by their arms — for the out 
rages and damages which may accrue to the persons and property of 
the inhabitants of these defenceless towns — for the injuries the pub* 



340 



DESCRIPTION OF SALTILLO. 




Saltillo. 



lie interests may suffer, and for all the evils consequent upon the 
most unjustifiable invasion ever known to the world." Without 
answering this paper, General Taylor pushed forward to Saltillo, 
where General Worth had been since the 16th. 

Saltillo is situated about sixty-five miles south-west from Monterey, 
and contains nearly twenty thousand inhabitants. Many of the 
houses are two stories high, well built of sun-burnt bricks, covered 
with cement. The streets are well paved, and the whole city is 
about the size of Monterey, but more compactly built. Its four 
plazas are kept in neat order, and its numerous fountains, scattered 
here and there, impart to it an appearance of taste and elegance. 
The cathedral is a magnificent building, larger than that at Monterey, 
built of the same material as the houses, having the cement mixed 
with small stones. 

The first care of General Taylor was to make a reconnoissance of 
the interior. Two principal routes led in this direction — one to San 
Luis Potosi, the other through a luxuriantly fertile country, to Parras. 
The first of these was covered by Worth's troops ; and General Tay- 
lor now ordered Brigadier-General Wool, who had lately arrived in 
the vicinity with the division of the centre, to move upon Parras. 
The state of Coahuila was thus completely covered, so that should 
occasion offer, a demonstration might immediately be made against 
Zacatecas, Durango, or San Luis. General Taylor and his staff re- 
turned to Monterey on the 23d. 



TAYLOR MARCHES TO VICTORIA. 



341 




Victoria and Tula Pass. 

Litlle of interest transpired after the general's return until the 15th 
of December, when he set out for Victoria, leaving the command at 
Monterey with General Butler. Reaching Montemorelos on the 17th, 
he was joined by a force from Camargo consisting of the second in- 
fantry regiment of Tennessee, and the second infantry (regulars.) At 
the same time he received a despatch from Worth, conveying the 
information, that in consequence of the diminished force at Monterey, 
Santa Anna was about making a vigorous attack upon Saltillo, and 
if successful, that he was to follow it up by a blow at Parras. Know- 
ing his adversary's force to be large, the general determined to aban- 
don his movement upon Victoria, and by returning to Monterey, to 
place himself in a position to reinforce the threatened points. He 
afterwards sent General Quitman to Victoria with the volunteers and 
a field-battery, which force effected a junction with General Patter- 
son, the commandant at that place. 

On reaching Monterey, General Taylor was gratified to learn that 
both Wool and Butler had hastened with reinforcements to Saltillo, 
in order to render General Worth sufficiently strong to resist the 
expected attack. The commander himself set out for the same place, 
but on the road was met by a messenger from Worth, announcing 
that the rumour as to Santa Anna's intentions was unfounded. 
Deeming, therefore, his presence there unnecessary, he returned to 
Monterey, whence he soon after departed for Victoria. Accompanied 
by Twiggs's division, he reached the town on the 4th of January, 



342 



TAYLOR MARCHES TO SALTILLO. 



swelling the force at that place to five thousand men. With these 
troops the commander commenced active preparations for marching 
upon Tampico, and orders to that effect had been issued, when he 
unexpectedly received from General Scott [January 15,] a demand 
for part of his army, to assist that officer in his contemplated attack- 
on Vera Cruz. « 

On receiving this, General Taylor immediately left for Monterey 
Ihe order deprived him of nearly all his regulars, together with the 
volunteer divisions of Generals Worth and Patterson, and the brigades 
of Quitman and Twiggs. To cover the great tract of country be- 
tween the Rio Grande and Saltillo, there remained only about five 
thousand troops, of whom five hundred were regulars. The partino- 
between the general and his war-tried veterans was affecting. Durin° 
the reading of the order which announced their separation, tears 
rolled down the cheeks of those who had battled on the Rio Grande 
and at Monterey. "It is with deep sensibility," says the paper, 
" that the commanding general finds himself separated from the troops 
he so long commanded. To those corps, regular and volunteer, who 
have shared with him the active services of the field, he feels the 
attachment due to such associations, while to those who are making 
their first campaign, he must express his regret that he cannot partici- 
pate with them in its eventful scenes. To all, both officers and men, 
he extends his heartfelt wishes for their continued success and happi- 
ness, confident that their achievements on another theatre will re- 
dound to the credit of their country and its arms." 

General Taylor remained at Monterey until the latter part of Janu- 
ary, when he received information from General Wool at Saltillo, that 
rumours of an attack by Santa Anna were again prevalent. He deter- 
mined, therefore, to remain no longer inactive— an alternative never 
very congenial to his nature— but to push with his small force farther 
into the enemy's country, and if practicable, to anticipate his attack. 
In pursance of this daring resolution, he left fifteen hundred men at 
Monterey, and marched on the 31st of January for Saltillo. On the 
15th of February, he ordered Major McCulloch to make a reconnois- 
sance as far as Agua Nueva, about thirty miles off, for the purpose 
of obtaining information respecting the advance of Santa Anna. At 
midnight of the 16th, the major arrived within a mile of the town, 
and was fired upon by a picket guard. Not knowing the road, and 
the night being very dark, McCulloch advanced cautiously along the 
road, until his party came abreast of some obstacle that hindered 
farther approach. Suddenly they were challenged by a Mexican 
sentinel, and before an answer could be returned were fired on by an 
apparently large force, drawn up across the road. Totally ignorant 



Mcculloch's expedition. 



345 




McCulloch examining a Mexican Deserter. 



of the number of the enemy, the major ordered a charge, which was 
gallantly executed, and ended in the total rout of the enemy. This 
enabled him to obtain the desired information, with which he returned 
to General Taylor. 

On the 20th McCulloch was again despatched on a scout, taking 
with him but six men. Six miles from Agua Nueva, he met a de- 
serter, who stated that Santa Anna had arrived at Encarnacion with 
twenty thousand men. The major moved forward, however, until 
midnight, when he arrived in view of Encarnacion, where found the 
enemy encamped apparently in great force. Favoured by the dark- 
ness of the night, he moved stealthily forward, passed the pickets, 
and arrived near the camp guard. Here he reconnoitered the camp, 
in order to ascertain its length. He now determined to send to Ge- 
neral Taylor all his party except one man, that they might imme- 
diately report, while he remained behind until daylight, for the pur- 
pose of obtaining a fuller view of the enemy's camp. 

On the following morning the major found himself entangled amid 
the enemy's pickets, and in full view of their main army. To be 
captured was certain death, yet escape seemed impossible. By a 
series of the most brilliant manoeuvers he and his companion passed 

44 



**46 



TAYLOR AT ANGOSTURA, 




Captain Daniel Drake Henrie. 



among the guards, who were induced to believe them Mexicans, and 
escaping into the main road, set off' briskly to join the American 
army. He found it in full march towards Buena Vista, in consequence 
of the information sent by the major during the night. During the 
day, General Taylor reached the strong mountain pass of Angostura, 
three miles from Buena Vista, and about eight from Saltillo. Here 
he awaited, with his little army, the threatened attack of Santa Anna. 
Two disasters which happened to portions of the American army, 
a little before this, are worthy of notice. In the latter part of Decem- 
ber, Captain May, with two companies of dragoons, was sent to ex- 
amine the country south of the road between Monterey and Victoria. 
By means of a difficult pass, scarcely practicable for horses, he reached 
a rancho, named Labadores, where he seized some stores. In re- 
turning by way of the Linares pass, he was obliged to move along 
the dry bed of a stream, which wound through a defile so narrow 
that the party were obliged to dismount and lead their horses one by 
one. On each side the cliffs rose almost perpendicularly to a height 
of several hundred feet. When the greater part of the squadron had 



capture of Borland's command 347 

passed through, and the rear guard were about entering, a mine was 
sprung from the rocks above, and showers of stones came pouring into 
the pass. Immediately after, a fire of musketry was opened from the 
opposite side, which caused the eleven men constituting the rear to 
fly in disorder, and the drivers to desert their mules. May dismounted 
as speedily as possible, and with twenty men, repassed the defile and 
went a mile beyond, but without finding his men. Some straggling- 
shots from the heights were received and returned without injury to 
either party. The total loss was eleven men, twelve horses, and all 
the baggage. 

On tl.e 22d of January, at Encarnacion, two scouting parties under 
the command of Majors Borland and Gaines, were" surrounded and 
captured by General Minon with an overwhelming body of lancers. 
The accident seems to have occurred principally from carelessness, 
and when we compare it with similar expeditions of Walker, McCul- 
loch, and other officers, it is impossible to resist the impression that 
if fighting had been impracticable, the party might at least have re- 
treated, or concealed itself, before coming in contact with so supe- 
rior an enemy. The whole command, numbering six officers and 
sixty-four men, were marched off towards Mexico ; but on the road 
Captain Henrie, one of the officers, effected his escape. Only five 
days after, Captain Heady, with seventeen Kentucky volunteers, was 
captured by a party of rancheros. 





General Wool 



CHAPTER XX. 



MARCH OF GENERAL WOOL TO MONCLOVA. 



T has been already mentioned, that on 
receiving news of the opening of 
General Taylor's campaign on the 
Rio Grande, the American Congress 
recognized the existence of war be- 
tween the two republics. In conse- 
quence of this recognition the presi- 
dent was authorized, on the 13th of 
May, to accept the service of any 
number of volunteers, not exceeding 
fifty thousand. Under this act, requi- 
sitions were immediately made upon 
the governors of Arkansas, Missis- 
sippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, 
Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Texas, for a volun- 
(348) 




GENERAL WOOL. 349 

teer force equal to twenty-six regiments, which, with a battalion from 
the District of Columbia and Maryland, amounted to about twenty- 
three thousand effective men. They were to serve for the period of 
twelve months or until the end of the war. 

This call met a prompt and patriotic response ; the force was or- 
ganized and sent forward to the points of destination. The greater 
portion of it was designed to co-operate with the main army on the 
Rio Grande ; the part from the state of Missouri assembled at Fort 
Leavenworth, to march under General Kearny for Santa Fe ; and 
a third command to be denominated the " Army of the Centre," was 
placed under Brigadier-General Wool, with instructions to march 
against the city and province of Chihuahua. It is of the organiza- 
tion and march of the latter force that we are now to speak. 

After this plan of operations was adopted, Wool was ordered to 
Washington, and set out for that city on the day that his instruc- 
tions reached him. The duties entailed on him by government were 
arduous in the extreme — to muster into service during the campaign 
the twelve months' volunteers of six states, and march them into the 
enemy's country. He landed from the gulf at Labaca, (Texas,) on 
the 2d of August, 1846, with two regiments of Illinois infantry, under 
Colonels Hardin and Bissell, and soon after marched for the place of 
rendezvous, San Antonio de Bexar, situated one hundred and fifty 
miles to the north. Here he was joined by Colonel Yell's mounted 
regiment from Arkansas, and that of Colonel Marshall of Kentucky ; 
Captain Washington's flying artillery, Major Bonneville's battalion 
of regular infantry, and Colonel Harney with four companies of dra- 
goons. The detachments were so tardy in arriving, that August had 
nearly expired before they had all reached the head-quarters. These 
men were from the walks of private life, and General Wool, on his 
arrival, found them utterly destitute of the character and supplies 
necessary to a campaign. 

Encompassed with difficulties, harassed with the murmurs and 
questionings of raw volunteers, unable to obtain supplies except from 
a great distance, Wool began his labours. He conducted a corres- 
pondence with agents, state governors, officers of the army, and with 
the war department ; he passed personally from state to state, and 
induced the proper authorities to meet the requisitions of govern- 
ment ; and in six weeks he had organized the whole command, sent 
on a large reinforcement to the Rio Grande, and prepared for his 
own march through Coahuila. 

On the 26th of September, the right wing of Wool's army, num- 
bering twelve hundred and thirty-seven men, under Colonel Harney, 
moved towards the Rio Grande, en route for Monclova. On the 
<2 G 



350 



WOOLS MARCH TO MONCLOVA. 



29th, General Wool followed in person, accompanied by his staff and 
Colonel Hardin's command of five hundred and seventy-four men. 
The remainder of the army followed soon after — the whole column 
numbering twenty-eight hundred officers and privates. On the 9th 
of October, the advance came in sight of the Rio Grande, and on the 
some day Wool published an order defining the course to be pur- 
sued towards the inhabitants of Mexico. The strictest order was 
enjoined on the volunteers, the unarmed inhabitants being regarded 
rather as friends than enemies. Wool announced that he had no; 
come to declare war against the peasantry, but against the govern- 
ment. " The people, therefore, who do not take up arms against 
the United States, and remain quiet and peaceful at their homes, will 
not be molested or interfered with, either as regards their persons or 
property ; and all those who furnish supplies will be treated kindly, 
and whatever is received from them will be liberally paid for. It is 
expected of the troops that they will observe the most rigid discipline 
and subordination. All depredations on the persons or property of 
the people of the country are strictly forbidden ; and any soldier or 
follower of the camp, who may so far forget his duty as to violate 
this injunction, will be severely punished." 

FTER crossing the boundary line, (Octo- 
ber 10,) the division marched to Parras, 
a distance of about four hundred miles. 
In that march the troops passed through, 
and took possession of, the cities of Pre- 
sidio del Rio Grande, Nava. San Fer- 
ftJ^i -Wl^ nando, Santa Rosa, Monclova, and Par- 

ras. The latter was entered December 
6, 1846. Some time was spent in each 
of these places, during which, the Americans improved their know- 
ledge of the language and manners of the people, with whom they 
enjoyed an apparently friendly intercourse. The line of march led 
through a great variety of scenery, marked after three days' progress 
in Mexico, by high and barren mountains on the south and west, 
covered with traces of rich ores. Extending from the base of these, 
were sterile plains and table-lands, scantily supplied, during the dry 
season, with water. Farther into the interior stretched beautiful, 
fertile valleys, embosoming quiet towns, haciendas, and cities, and 
surrounded in the distance by cloud-capt mountains, whose sides 
were green with cedars. In general, the country bordering on thf* 
Rio Grande, south and west of the crossing point, was level, well 
watered by small streams, and consequently fertile ; but the greater 
part of the territory passed through, westward of this portion, 




WOOL JOINS TAYLOR. 



353 



abounded in sandy deserts and marshy chaparral, presenting to the 
eye of the wearied soldier a succession of sterile, arid plains, where 
the foot of the white man rarely trod, and the deep silence is broken 
only by the vulture's scream, and the howl of the jackal. This march 
was more healthful to the soldiers than any which our army has con- 
ducted in Mexico. The mere change from the bilious atmosphere of 
the Mississippi, to the sweeping gales from snow-crowned mountains 
and boundless plains, was most renovating ; while the strict disci- 
pline enforced by Wool, the punctual camp exercise, and the march 
in the open country, together with the general's scrupulous attention 
to supplying an abundant quantity of healthful provision, caused the 
Division of the Centre to present an appearance of strength and effi- 
ciency unknown to some other portions of the army. 

ENERAL WOOL, in order to carry 
out the original design of the expedi- 
tion, on reaching Monclova, began 
preparations for a march upon Chi- 
huahua. Before these were com- 
pleted, intelligence was received that 
General Kearny, after capturing Santa 
Fe, had received the surrender of 
Chihuahua and the surrounding pro- 
vince without striking a blow. Wool, 
therefore, considered his advance 
upon that place as unnecessary ; and 
soon a far more momentous business 
caused him to merge his command into that of General Taylor. 

We have already stated, that soon after the termination of the 
Monterey armistice, General Worth was sent with a considerable 
force to Saltillo, and that rumours prevailed of an intended attack of 
Santa Anna upon that place. In consequence of this report, Wool 
was ordered from Monclova to Parras, in order to co-operate with 
Worth, if necessary. Here he remained eleven days, engaged in 
friendly intercourse with the population. On the 17th of December, 
he received an express from General Worth, requesting his column to 
move with all possible despatch for Saltillo. In less than two hours 
he was on his march. The movement occupied two days and a half, 
during which the army was roused every morning at one. o'clock. 
The spirit displayed by the men — their alacrity, cheerfulnesSj and 
patience, were most admirable. Although expecting soon to meet 
the enemy, their deportment inspired the staff and other officers with 
confidence as to the result. The march was a fitting prelude to the 




battle of Buena Vista. 
2g2 



45 




354 EFFICIENCY OF WOOL. 

HE march of this comvnn from 
San Antonio to Parras is an 
achievement not to be passed 
without at least a casual re- 
mark. To say that it is one 
of the most remarkable as well 
as praiseworthy achievements 
of the Mexican war, is but 
cold approbation. It was the 
accomplishment of a series of 
prodigies, a triumph over apparent impossibilities, the master efforts 
of a genius whose energy, and consequent success, appear to the 
common mind almost as miracles. Wool entered upon his duties 
without prospect of much reward, with every thing to accomplish 
and nothing to win. Even the men he was destined to make the 
soldiers, looked upon him as tyrannical and incapable. The press 
teemed with censures of his conduct, written by ignorant volunteers, 
whose only idea of discipline was to fight when they met the enemy, 
to do as they pleased to neutrals, and to behave in camp as though 
on a western prairie. A portion of the press, always too careless on 
such occasions, echoed these censures. Yet, against all this torrent 
of injustice, Wool bore up, conscious of superior ability, and indif- 
ferent to any other reward than the approbation of conscience. The 
correspondence which he carried on, while organizing the volunteers, 
was itself a gigantic task ; yet, at the same time, discipline was 
strictly enforced, supplies were collecting, and preparations for 
marching were carried on. During the march the persons and rights 
of the Mexicans were scrupulously respected, and it is worthy of re- 
mark, that Wool seems to be almost the only American general who 
has succeeded in gaining the permanent good will of the inhabitants 
of Mexico. A remarkable proof of this is afforded by the fact, that, 
when about leaving Parras, he was waited upon by a number of 
ladies, who requested permission to attend to the sick and disabled, 
which he was obliged to leave there ; and when the division had 
marched for Saltillo, these wives and daughters of the enemy nursed 
their feeble invaders with the most affecting tenderness. 

But the greatest eulogium which can be given to Wool, is the re- 
port of the conduct of his column at Buena Vista. Amid any com- 
mand, his troops would have there been conspicuous ; but when 
Worth's, Twiggs's, and Quitman's divisions were withdrawn to the 
Rio Grande, it was upon Wool's troops that General Taylor relied, 
in his terrible struggle with Santa Anna. Fortunate was it that his 
able auxiliary was not withdrawn with the others. Fortune, hitherto 



TESTIMONY TO GENERAL WOOL. 



355 



averse to Wool's reward, seemed at length to relent ; and when only 
disappointment seemed to await his long, laborious exertions, she 
unexpectedly opened to him a more glorious field of triumph than 
Chihuahua; the wrestlings for victory with the greatest chief of 
Mexico, amid the cliffs and gorges of Buena Vista. There his men 
learned the value of those duties which they had once despised ; 
there they were enabled to meet regular troops, and grapple with 
them as regulars ; and there, also, the man who had formerly ap- 
peared harsh and unreasonable, was regarded, while moving from 
rank to rank, as a controlling spirit, he who, with the commander-in- 
chief, would maintain his position until cut to pieces. It is stated 
on good authority, that long before the battle, Wool chose Buena 
Vista as a position admirably situated for defensive operations, and 
that it was upon his suggestion General Taylor fell back to it, on the 
afternoon of February 21st. 

HE nature of Wool's duties was 
appreciated by his commander, 
who declares that his obligations 
are especially due to him. " The 
high state of discipline and in- 
structions of several of the volun- 
teer regiments was attained under 
his command, and to his vigilance 
and arduous services before the 
action, and his gallantry and ac- 
tivity on the field, a large share 
of our success may justly be at- 
tributed." 

Similar was the testimony of his officers, in reply to his order bid- 
ding them farewell, when their term of service had expired. With 
an extract from this — one most remarkable — we close the present 
chapter. "Upon entering the service a year since," say the officers, 
"they [the officers and soldiers of the first regiment, Illinois volun- 
teers] were not prepared to appreciate the importance of discipline 
and drill, and consequently complained of them as onerous and un- 
necessary. Complaints were loud and many. Their judgment 
convinced, their feelings have undergone a change, and they now 
thank you for your untiring exertions to make them useful to their 
country, and a credit to their state. 

"Whatever, sir, of service, we may have done our common 
country, or whatever honour we may have done the state of Illinois, 
to General John E. Wool is due the credit. You, sir, brought your 
column into the field, well provided for, and well disciplined, and 




356 



TESTIMONY TO GENERAL WOOL. 



fought them well when you got them there ; and should our country 
again need our services in the field, it would be our proudest wish to 
again meet the enemy under the immediate command of one in whose 
energy, watchfulness, and courage, we and the whole army have the 
most unlimited confidence." 

Such a testimonial as this, unsought and disinterested as it is, 
speaks volumes in behalf of this able, experienced, humane, and 
courageous commander. 




A Texas Ranger. 




CHAPTER XXI. 

SANTA ANNA'S MARCH TO BUENA VISTA. BATTLE-GROUND AND 
SKIRMISH OF FEBRUARY 22. 



HE last few chapters have been devoted 
principally to the movements of the Ameri- 
can forces. Meanwhile important opera- 
tions had been transpiring in Mexico, at 
which a glance is necessary in order to have 
a full and correct view of the great strug- 
gle at Buena Vista. 

General Paredes, who, as we have seen, 
succeeded Herrera in the government of 
Mexico, soon evinced his utter inability to 
maintain the popularity to which he owed 
his position. He came into office as a mili- 
tary ruler; and both his foreign and his 
domestic policy were but a code of martial 
and tyrannical laws. After evincing a desire to prosecute the war 
with the United States, he adopted no measures to meet so heavy a 
responsibility ; but, on the contrary, altered materially the constitu- 

(359) 




360 RECALL OF SANTA ANNA. 

tion respected by his predecessors, deprived the masses of the 
elective franchise, abridged other liberties, and imprisoned or 
banished the editors of such papers as opposed him. 

In a country like Mexico, such conduct could not long be dis- 
played before being submitted to the ordeal of a political revolution. 
Yucatan speedi'iy revolted, and has since remained independent; the 
citizens of Vera Cruz opposed the act depriving them of the elective 
franchise, while ambitious politicians, military aspirants, and other 
similar characters, united with the injured populace, and fanned the 
flame of insurrection. Some of these being detected and impri- 
soned, the movement broke out in open revolt. News of Arista's 
discomfiture on the Rio Grande added to the tumult. The ven- 
geance of an injured people concentrated itself, that it might descend 
as an avalanche on the author of national misrule and calamity. 
Paredes quailed before the storm, and implored help and money from 
the clergy. The latter met in council, and, after mature delibera- 
tion, decided that the funds of the church could not be appropriated 
to any other than ecclesiastical purposes. The revolutionists, elated 
by this declaration, issued a proclamation against his government, 
and elected a provisional one on the basis of the constitution of 1824. 
This body immediately invited the return of all persons banished on 
account of politics, especially "his excellency, General Antonio 
Lopez de Santa Anna, who is from this time recognized as general- 
in-chief of all the forces engaged." The nomination of this popular 
leader gave an impulse to the revolutionary movement, which Pa- 
redes was utterly unable to quell ; so that, after a feeble resistance, 
he abandoned the capital, and fled towards the interior. He was 
soon arrested and thrown into prison. General Salas was named pro- 
visional president, and immediately declared for Santa Anna, affirm- 
ing the constitution of 1824 to be in force, and calling upon Congress 
to meet on the 6th of December, under its rules and restrictions. 

All this had transpired during the time that General Taylor re- 
mained on the Rio Grande, preparing for a march against Monterey. 
Santa Anna was then at Havana. On receiving the above-men- 
tioned invitation he immediately embarked for Vera Cruz, and after 
passing through the American gulf squadron, by permission of Pre- 
sident Polk, landed at that city on the 16th of August, 1846. On 
the same day he placed himself at the head of the movement in that 
district, and issued a proclamation, stating the causes of Arista's de- 
feat, the unmilitary conduct of the war, and his designs as to its 
future progress. His health being somewhat impaired, he retired to 
his hacienda near Vera Cruz, where he remained until the early part 
of September, when he advanced to Ayotla. On the 15th he entered 



EXERTIONS OF SANTA ANNA. 



361 




Santa Anna. 



the capital, amid the enthusiastic shouts and congratulations of 
thousands. 

Under these flattering auspices Santa Anna commenced his govern- 
ment as supreme dictator of Mexico. He entered upon the most 
energetic plans for raising and equipping troops, and, instead of re- 
maining in the capital as president, he appointed a substitute, and 
placed himself at the head of the army. Decrees were issued, call- 
ing for funds, creating officers, and providing for the raising of sup- 
plies. He placed his head-quarters at San Luis, where an army of 
twenty-thousand men, mostly raw recruits, were soon collected. To 
prepare these for the campaign, Santa Anna made the most vigorous 
exertions, even sacrificing a great portion of his own estates. The 
populace entered into his measures with enthusiasm, and, notwith- 
standing his numerous difficulties, he moved, early in January, 1847, 
against General Taylor. The march was a terrible one. Amid 
burning deserts, and over bleak mountains, without a drop of fresh 
water, or any provisions except raw corn, and occasionally a small 
slice of ham for each man, the Mexican general conducted his army, 
day after day. Yet such was their confidence in his ability, such 
the strange hold which he had taken on their feelings, that they bore 
all without a murmur, and followed their chief with enthusiasm and 
childlike devotion. No man in Mexico, except Santa Anna, could 
2H 46 



362 



DESCRIPTION OF BUENA VISTA. 





have kept them together one day. " Our troops," writes one of 
their number, after the battle, " are perishing with hunger and thirst. 
They have not drunk water in two days, and have eaten nothing 
since the day they were at Encarnacion, and a slice of roasted meat 
at La Vaca. The soldiers are scattering, and bodies of them fighting 
and charging upon the enemy wherever they thought there was 
water, and we have seen them disputing among themselves, totally 
regardless of the fire of the enemy, for a piece of ham found upon 
the dead Americans." 

REAT as were these difficulties, 
we find Santa Anna emerging 
from the mountains, in the lat- 
ter part of January, and moving 
rapidly towards Saltillo. After 
manoeuvering in the neighbourhood for 
some time, he reached Encarnacion on the 
20th of February, and next day resumed 
his march for Saltillo. 

The field of Buena Vista is, in its topo- 
graphical features, so irregular and intri- 
cate as to render a clear appreciation of the various movements of 
the battle fought there almost impossible, except to a military man. 
A general description, however, avoiding details of the military 
changes in position, will enable the careful reader to form a tolerably 
correct idea of the relative situation of the forces at the beginning of 
the action. 

Buena Vista is a small village or rancho, situated five miles south- 
west of Saltillo, on the road between that place and San Luis Potosi. 
The American baggage and supply train were here stationed during 
the whole battle, and upon the small force left to guard it, a portion 
of the Mexican cavalry from their right wing charged late on the 23d, 
On each side of the San Luis road, precipitous mountains rose to a 
great height, thus forming a narrow valley very difficult for the move- 
ments of a large military force. On the west side of the road, and 
extending to the foot of the mountains, was a labyrinth of deep and 
impassable gulleys, which rendered all travelling on that part of the 
valley impossible. Three miles below Buena Vista, these gulleys ap- 
proached so near the base of the eastern ridge of mountains, as to 
narrow the valley to the width of the road, from which it received 
the name of the Pass of Angostura, or the narrows. A small force 
placed at this spot would be utterly inaccessible from the west, 
almost equally so from the mountains of the east, and could hold the 
road against a direct attack from a vastly superior foe. In this strong 



POSITION OF THE ARMY. 



363 



defile was placed Washington's battery of three guns, supported by 
two companies of the 1st Illinois volunteers. West of this pass, the 
right wing of the American army was drawn up on the sides of the 
mountains, thcp : r eastern extremity stretching towards the pass. On 
a broad plateau or table-land formed by extensions of the eastern 
mountain chain was the left of the army, their east flank covered 
by cliffs, and their west by Washington's battery. On the extreme 
east, among the high mountains, were situated on the evening 
of the 22d, the American light troops, with whom and the Mexican 
light infantry the skirmish of that day took place. 

UCH in general was the position of 
General Taylor's army. The posi- 
tion of the different regiments com- 
posing the two wings was as fol- 
lows : On a plateau, directly east 
of Washington's battery, were six 
companies of Colonel Hardin's 1st 
Illinois regiment, flanked on the 
left by the 2d Kentucky regiment, 
and the 2d Illinois regiment covering 
Sherman's battery. These were 
charged on the afternoon of the 
23d by the Mexican infantry from 
Agua Nueva, after the latter had 
repulsed the 2d Indiana regiment, and O'Brien's artillery. East of 
these troops, on another plateau, was [February 22d] the Arkansas 
cavalry, who were attacked late on the 23d. North of these, on the 
broad table-land, Colonel Davis's Mississippi riflemen were drawn 
up in battle array with artillery in the centre and on each flank. These 
were charged by the Mexican cavalry after the repulse of the Indiana 
troops, but maintained their ground. At this time the enemy's 
column became divided, a body of nearly two thousand being 
crowded into a pass, where the artillery did fearful execution among 
them. At this point, Colonel May, and Pike's squadron of dragoons 
were preparing to charge them, when a flag of truce from Santa Anna 
caused a suspension of hostilities, which enabled them to retreat. 
That of Santa Anna advanced along the San Luis road, from Agua 
Nueva, a rancho, twelve miles south of Buena Vista. On the after- 
noon of the 22d, the main body was observed moving northward 
over the hills in perfect order of battle, their direction being towards 
the American left. Before evening, their light troops were detached 
still farther to the east or [American] left, and on our reaching the 
high mountains became engaged, as has already been stated, with 




364 PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE. 

the American light troops. On the following morning this skirmish 
was renewed, while at the same time the main army wound their 
way northward among the mountain ridges, and divided into two 
portions, one of which charged the Kentucky and Illinois regiments, 
of the American left, while the other portion, moving towards the 
north, again divided into two columns, one of which charged the 
Mississippi rifles, and the other moved round in a western direction, 
and attacked Buena Vista. 

We now proceed to fill up the foregoing sketch with a description 
of the battle. The immediate command of the American army was 
intrusted to General Wool, who planned the action, and stationed 
the troops in their respective positions. At eight o'clock on the 22d, 
he received notice that the Mexican army was at Agua Nueva 
During the previous night, Colonel Hardin's regiment had thrown 
up a parapet on the height left of the road, and extended a parapet 
and small ditch from the right of the road around the edge of a gulley. 
Wool directed a similar ditch and parapet to be dug across the road 
for the protection of Washington's artillery, leaving a narrow passage 
next to the mountains, which was closed up by running into it two 
wagons loaded with stone. At nine o'clock, the advance pickets 
discovered the van of the enemy, and on receiving their report, 
Wool immediately sent information to the commanding general, who 
was at Saltillo, and ordered the troops stationed at Buena Vista to 
be brought forward. 

Soon after sunrise the Mexican army was observed moving over 
the hills to the south, their infantry drawn up in columns, supported 
by deep sections of cavalry. As the heavy masses continued to 
arrive, moving in regular order, they presented a most stirring spec- 
tacle. Their new uniforms and burnished arms, glittering in the 
morning sun, and quivering with thousands of reflections, seemed 
like a sea of steel ; while the rows of cavalry presented a pomp and 
grandeur of appearance far beyond any thing in the American army. 
All the morning they continued to arrive, until the whole southern 
horizon blazed on every side with the intolerable splendour of their 
arms. 

At eleven o'clock, General Taylor was waited upon by Surgeon 
Liegenburg of the Mexican army, who carried a white flag, and the 
following communication from his commander. 

" You are surrounded by twenty thousand men, and cannot, in any 
human probability, avoid suffering a rout, and being cut to pieces 
with your troops ; but as you deserve consideration and particular 
esteem, I wish to save you from a catastrophe, and for that purpose 
give you this notice, in order that you may surrender at discretion, 



TAYLOR DECLINES TO SURRENDER. 



365 




under the assurance that you will be treated with the consideration 
belonging to the Mexican character, to which end you will be granted 
an hour's time to make up your mind, to commence from the moment 
when my flag of truce arrives in your camp. 

" With this view, I assure you of my particular consideration." 
The American general immediately wrote the following answer. 
" In .reply to your note of this date, summoning me to surrender 
my forces at discretion, I beg leave to say that I decline acceding to 
your request." 

N immediate attack was now expected, 
but this Santa Anna still delayed, as his 
rear columns had not yet arrived. At 
two o'clock, P. M., while the enemy's 
light infantry were moving up the sides 
of the mountain, in the ravines east of 
the road, they came in contact with the 
American light troops, and opened upon 
them with a large howitzer. On hearing 
the firing, General Taylor, who had ar- 
rived on the battle-field, supposed that 
a general attack was about to commence, and made such changes in 
the disposition of the Illinois and Kentucky regiments as were ne- 
cessary to secure the plateau east of Washington's battery, which 
commanded the road to Saltillo, and was the key to his whole 
position. Occasional shots were thrown from the howitzer until 
after three o'clock, when the American light troops, under Colonel 
Marshall, engaged the enemy's infantry on the side of the moun- 
tain. The nature of the ground materially affected his movements, 
so that instead of the action increasing in extent, it sometimes 
dwindled down into unimportant skirmishes, and at others assumed 
a phase of some moment. The effect, however, upon the Ameri- 
can army was most striking. To the far greater part, it was the 
first event of actual war they had ever witnessed ; and as they 
stood on the broad plateaus watching the struggle, or wound through 
the narrow defiles from one position to another, their feelings were 
excited to the highest pitch. During this time the main body of the 
enemy, had collected in the road near a rancho, named Encantada, 
from whence they advanced in a north-east direction, towards a de- 
file leading to the key of the American position. Their masses 
gathered in order of attack, but it was soon evident that no effort 
was to be made that night. Meanwhile the firing to the east con- 
tinued, each party manceuvering so as to gain an advantageous posi- 
tion for the night. The sun set before the action terminated, and 
2h2 



366 TAYLOR RETURNS TO SALTILLO. 

even after darkness had covered the wild scenery, the firing of light 
arms was heard from the heights. The loss on the part of the Ame- 
ricans was very slight, while more than thirty Mexicans are said to 
have been killed and wounded. After sunset General Taylor be- 
came convinced that no serious attack was intended that night, and 
accordingly, with the Mississippi regiment and a squadron of dra- 
goons, he returned to Saltillo. The night was excessively cold, yet 
the Americans bivouacked on the bleak rocks, without fires, and 
upon their arms. The scene was solemn and impressive ; high rocks 
apparently shutting out even the twinkling of stars, soared up on every 
side until lost in the blackened air; thick darkness gathered around 
the little army, the air seemed clotted with oppressive vapours, and 
a silence that pained the ear more than the jarring of cannon, hung 
around. Now and then a solitary vulture moved heavily through the 
gloom, making the stillness more awful by his foreboding scream. 
Many a young soldier, whose heart beat high with the longings of 
ambition, looked up fearfully that night through the frowning shade, 
and turned away to dream of home and sleep his last sleep. 








CHAPTER XXII. 



BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. 



T daylight on the 23d of February, both 
armies were in rapid motion. General 
Taylor had reached Saltillo on the pre- 
vious night. Near this place General 
Minon had manoeuvered all day, for the 
purpose of cutting off the expected re- 
treat of the American army, and per- 
haps of making an attempt upon the 
town. In order to be prepared for any 
emergency, the commander appointed 
four companies of Illinois volunteers to 
garrison it, assisted by Webster's artillery. He then proceeded to 
Buena Vista, and ordered forward all the available troops from that 
place. 

(367) 




PLAN OF THE BATTL 




REFERENCES. 
A 2d Indiana Regiment/with O'Brien's anil- P. Enemy's Battery, 8 pieces. 

lery, A. M. 23d, 1st Position. G. Indiana Brigade, February 22d. 

B 2 Companies Illinois 1st Regiment, Febru- H. Kilburne's Artillery, detached A. M Feb.22. 



ary 22d and 23d. 

C. Washington's Artillery, Feb. 22d and 23d. 

D. 2d Kentucky Regiment, A. M. February 22d. 

E. 6 Companies Illinois 1st Regiment, Colonel 

Hardin, February 22d. 



I. 2d Illinois Regiment, A. M. Feb. 23d. 

J. Arkansas Cavalry, February 22d. 
K. Howitzer supporting Light Infantry. 
L. Mexican Light Infantry, Evening Feb. 22. 
M. U. S. light troops, Evening Feb. 22d. 



CF BUENA VISTA. 




REFERENCES. 
N. 2d Kentucky Regiment, 9 A. M. Feb. 23d. W. Mexican Cavalry charging Miss. Rifles. 
O. 2d Illinois Regiment. with section Sherman's X. Enemy's Lancers charging Rancho. 

Artillery, A. M. 23d. Y. May and Pike's squadron of Dragoons, 12M. 

P. 2d. Kentucky Regiment skirmishing 23d. Feb. 23d. , 

R. Infantry Reserves. Z. Cavalry Charge. 3 P. M. 

8. Mexican Infantry charsing, 3 P. M. Feb. 23d. 1. 2. 3. Route of the Enemy's light troops, evf.o- 
V. MississippiJtifles, 3d Indiana Regiment, and ing22d. 

>-."»ery, 12 M. Feb. 23d. a. Fart of the Enemy's camp. 

47 



370 BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. 

During the night the enemy had succeeded in gaining the top of 
the mountain, where the skirmish of the preceding evening had taken 
place, and in passing thence to the left and rear. Under cover of the 
night about fifteen hundred men had been thrown forward to the 
same position, and were now prepared for an attack upon the light 
troops of Colonel Marshall. Here the battle of the 23d commenced 
at an early hour. Heavy volleys of musketry, succeeded by the roar 
of cannon and shouts of officers, convinced General Wool that the 
left wing was to be the principal point of attack. The intrepid rifle- 
men, animated by their commander, received the shock from the im- 
mense masses of the enemy with coolness, pouring back, in return, 
the contents of their unerring rifles. Soon they were reinforced by 
three companies of the 2d Illinois volunteers, under Major Trail. 
The troops covered themselves behind ridges of the mountains, in 
positions perfectly secure from artillery, and where every charge of 
the enemy was met with advantage. 

While this movement was going on, a heavy column moved along 
the San Luis road, against the American centre. As they marched 
rapidly towards this point, Captain Washington opened his battery 
from the pass. So terrible was the effect, that whole lines seemed 
to sink at every discharge, and long gaps in the densely packed 
mass, told of the sweeping entrance of grape and canister. Led on 
by their officers, the survivors pressed forward, under this withering fire, 
until within full range of the captain's artillery, when the front ranks 
recoiled in confusion. The whole column was soon in rapid retreat, 
leaving behind masses of dead and dying. 

These, however, were but preparations for the main attack. Dur- 
ing the whole morning, an immense force of infantry and cavalry had 
been concentrated among the ridges, and under cover of the cliffs, 
at the foot of the mountain on which Colonel Marshall was posted. 
They now commenced filing through the gorges towards the large 
plateau where Brigadier-General Lane was posted, with the 2d In- 
diana regiment, under Colonel Bowles, the 2d Illinois regiment, and 
Captain O'Brien's artillery. On gaining the plateau, the enemy 
rushed on in crowded masses, the cavalry pouring through a defile 
to charge the American infantry. Lane immediately ordered the 
Indiana regiment forward, supporting it with the artillery. This 
movement seems to have been unfortunate, as it separated the troops 
from immediate support at a most critical moment. The enemy per- 
ceived the error, and collecting all their force in one united mass, 
they charged like an avalanche along the edge of the plateau. The 
Indiana troops had not reached the designated position, when 
Colonel Bowles, who commanded the regiment, without the authority 
of General Lane, gave the order, " Cease firing and retreat." The 



BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. 



371 




Repulse of the Mexican Cavalry at Buena Vista, 
troops obeyed as a matter of course ; and the consequences were very 
disastrous. The services of this regiment, which, up to that moment 
had behaved with great gallantry, were nearly lost during the rest of 
the battle, as only a portion of them was rallied by the officers, the 
remainder retreating to Buena Vista. Captain Carleton, in his ac- 
count of the battle, expresses the opinion that if this regiment had 
not been thrown out of service by the order of its colonel, General 
Pacheco's division would have been cut up, and the success of the 
day would have been more complete. While engaged in rallying 
the Indiana troops, Lieutenant Charles Lincoln, a highly esteemed 
staff officer was killed. 

Unaware of the loss of his support, O'Brien galloped on until he 
arrived at the spot pointed out by General Lane. The spectacle 
from this position was sufficient to appal even a veteran. The hills, 
on every side, were alive with troops ; horsemen were pouring over 
the ground, and artillery vomiting forth floods of flaming death. The 
rocks seemed to start and topple with the hurrying multitude, and 
shouts of officers and cheers of men rose, like the roar of ocean, 
above the din of battle. The intrepid O'Brien saw the vast host 
rushing towards him, and with a quick, anxious glance, he turned to 
see where was his support. He was alone. With three pieces of 
artillery, and a few cannoneers, he was exposed to the shock of the 
huge multitude. If he yielded, the battle was lost, and certain de- 
struction seemed inevitable if he stood. Flushed with victory, the 
heavy columns of cavalry came pouring on from the discomfiture o x 
the Indianians, their horses crowding upon each other, and su,' 



372 BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA 

rounded on all sides by the dense masses of infantry. Victory was 
concentrated at this single point, and every eye on the battle-field 
was bent upon the issue. Amid the deafening uproar, the shrill 
voice of Wool was heard far in the distance, calling forward the 
troops of Illinois. The sound seemed to animate O'Brien's little 
company, and they prepared for the fearful encounter. 

By this time most of the cannoneers had been killed or disabled, 
the captain had received a wound in the leg and two horses had fallen 
under him. Three thousand Mexican infantry were pouring showers 
of musketry upon him, while a battery, three hundred yards to his 
left, was vomiting forth grape and canister. Suddenly he opened 
his fire. Companies melted before him ; alleys and gaps opened 
along all the enemy's front, and the unerring shot rattled upon their 
cannon, sweeping artillery, man, and horse to destruction. Struck 
with horror, the front columns wavered and fell back. Elated with 
success, O'Brien advanced about fifty yards, and continued his fire. 
The van paused, rallied to receive reinforcements, and again moved 
forward. In rapid succession, one discharge after another was 
hurled against them ; but each gap was filled as soon as made, and 
in one desperate mass they poured towards the captain's position. 
Finding it impossible longer to resist their progress he gave them his 
last discharge, and withdrew to the American line. 

N arriving here, he had not a 
cannoneer to work the guns, 
all having been killed or dis- 
abled. It being impossible to 
replace them, he was com- 
pelled to apply to Captain 
Washington, who furnished 
him with two six-pounders. 
With these he again ascended 
the plateau, where he came 
in contact with a strong line of 
infantry and cavalry, covered 
by a heavy battery. He was himself supported by a body of infantry 
posted in two ravines on his right and left. The remainder of the 
American artillery and infantry were engaged with the enemy about 
half a mile to his left. O'Brien kept the Mexicans in check, while 
the troops .o the left drove the body, opposed to them, round the 
head of the ravine, where they united with those opposed to the cap- 
tain. About this time, the latter received orders to advance, and at 
the same time, the enemy, finding themselves strong by their junction, 
came on to meet him. The position of affairs was most critical, for 




BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. 373 

if the Mexcians succeeded in forcing the American position the day 
was theirs. There being no artillery opposed to them but O'Brien's 
section and another piece, it was all important for him to maintain 
his ground until the guns on the left could come round the ravine to 
join him. He determined, therefore, to hold this position until the 
enemy reached the muzzles of his guns. The struggle was a terrible 
one. Each party put forth its utmost strength, and the feelings of the 
soldier were wound to a pitch of enthusiasm, that made him reckless 
of death itself. The enemy sunk down by scores, and a body of 
lancers, charging the Illinois troops, were compelled to fall back. 
Still the main body rushed on, shaking the mountain passes with 
the trampling of their armed thousands, and shouting above the up- 
roar of battle. The wounded and dying were crushed in their 
furious charge, and soon their horses were within a few yards of 
O'Brien's pieces. Here they received the last discharge, and as the 
driving hail smote their columns, a groan of anguish followed, and 
horse and rider sunk down, and rolled over the rocky surface in the 
arms of death. It was a dreadful moment, and as the columns swayed 
to and fro beneath the shock, and then sternly united for the head- 
long leap, companies that were mere spectators grew pale for the 
result. Although O'Brien was losing men and horses with alarming 
rapidity, he gave orders again to fire, when suddenly the few recruits 
who were fit for duty lost their presence of mind, and with all his 
efforts, they could not be kept to the guns. Mortified to find the 
fruits of his gigantic efforts torn from him, the captain rode round his 
guns with startling quickness, urging his followers by voice and ac- 
tion ; but it was in vain — no man on the field could have rallied 
them ; and after staying at his post to the last, he retired slowly and 
sullenly. He lost his pieces, but by his gallant stand he had kept 
the enemy in check long enough to sa^e the day. 

About the same time the 2d Illinois regiment, under Colonel Bis- 
sell, having become completely outflanked, were compelled to fall 
back. Colonel Marshall's light troops, on the extreme left, came down 
from their mountainous position, and joined the American main army. 
Masses of cavalry and infantry were now pouring through the de- 
files on the American left, in order to gain the rear north of the large 
plateau. At this moment General Taylor arrived upon the field 
from Saltillo. As the Mexican infantry turned the American flank, 
they came in contact with Colonel Davis's Mississippi riflemen, posted 
on a plateau north of the principal one. The 2d Kentucky regiment, 
and a section of artillery, under Captain Bragg, had previously been 
ordered to this position from the right, and arrived at a most im- 
portant crisis. As the masses of the enemy emerged from the defiles, 



374 



BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. 




Davis's Infantry repulsing the Mexican Cavalry. 



to the table-land above, they opened upon the riflemen, and the battle 
soon became deeply interesting. The lancers meanwhile were draw- 
ing up for a charge. The artillery on each side was in an incessant 
blaze, and one sheet of sparkling fire flashed from the small arms of 
both lines. Then the cavalry came dashing down, in dense column, 
their dress and arms glittering in the sun, seemingly in strange con- 
trast with their work of death. All around was clamour and hurry, 
drowning the shouts of command, and groans of the dying. Davis 
gave the order to fire ; a report from hundreds of the rifles rang 
along his line, and mangled heaps of the enemy sunk to the ground. 
Struck with dismay, the lacerated host heaved back, while in mad 
confusion, horse trod down horse, crushing wounded and dying be- 
neath their hoofs in the reckless rushings of retreat. The day was 
once more saved. 

At the same time, the Kentucky regiment, supported by Bragg's 
artillery, had driven back the enemy's infantry, and recovered a por- 
tion of the lost ground. The latter officer then moved his pieces to 
the main plateau, where, in company with Captain Sherman, he did 
much execution, particularly upon the masses that were in the rear. 
General Taylor placed all the regular cavalry and Captain Pike's 
squadron of horse under the orders of Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel 
May, with directions to hold in check the enemy's column, still 
advancing to the rear along the base of the mountain. May posted 
himself north of the ravine, through which the enemy were moving 
towards Buena Vista, in order to charge them as they approached that 



BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. 377 

place. The enemy, however, still continued to advance, until almost 
the whole American artillery were playing upon them. At length, 
unable to stand the fearful slaughter, their ranks fell into confusion, 
some of the corps attempting to effect a retreat upon their main line 
of battle. To prevent this, the general ordered the 1st dragoons, 
under Lieutenant Rucker, to ascend the deep ravine, which these 
corps were endeavouring to cross, and disperse them. The squadron, 
however, were unable to accomplish their object, in consequence of 
a heavy fire from a battery covering the enemy's retreat. 

Meanwhile, a large body of lancers assembled on the extreme left 
of the Americans, for the purpose of charging upon Buena Vista. To 
support that point, General Taylor ordered forward May, with two 
pieces of Sherman's battery. At the same time, the scattered forces 
at that hacienda were collected by Majors Munroe and Morrison, and 
uniting with some of the troops of the Indiana regiment, they were 
posted to defend the position. Before May could reach the village, 
the enemy had begun the attack. They were gallantly opposed by 
the Kentucky and Arkansas cavalry, under Colonels Marshall and 
Yell. The shock was a heavy one. Colonel Yell fell at the head of 
his column, a lance entering his mouth, wrenching off his lower jaw, 
and shattering the side of his face. The Kentuckians lost Adjutant 
Vaughan, a young officer of much promise. The enemy's column 
was separated into two portions, one sweeping by the American 
depot under a destructive fire from the Indiana troops, until they 
gained the mountain opposite, the other portion regaining the base 
of the mountain to the west. Lieutenant-Colonel May now reached 
Buena Vista, and approaching the base of the mountain, held in check 
the enemy's right flank, upon whose masses, crowded in the narrow 
gorges and ravines, the artillery was doing fearful execution. 

The position of that portion of the Mexican army which had gained 
the American rear, was now so critical, as to induce the belief that it 
would be forced to surrender. At the moment, however, when the 
artillery was thinning its ranks, and May, after much manoeuvering, 
was about charging their flank, a white flag was observed approach- 
ing the American quarters, and General Taylor ordered the firing to 
2ease. The message was simply a demand from General Santa Anna, 
requesting to know what the American general wanted. General 
Wool was sent to have a personal interview with the Mexican gene- 
ral. On reaching the Mexican lines, Wool was unable to stop the 
enemy's farther advance, and returned to head-quarters. The object 
of the Mexicans had, however, been accomplished — their extreme right 
moving along the base of the mountain, and joining the main army. 

During the day, the cavalry of General Minon had ascended the 
2i2 48 



378 BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. 

elevated plain above Saltillo, occupying the road from the city to the 
field of battle, where they intercepted several men. On approaching 
the town, they were fired upon by Captain Webster from the redoubt 
occupied by his company, after which they moved off towards the 
eastern side of the valley* in the direction of Buena Vista. Captain 
Shover, with one piece, moved rapidly forward in pursuit, and being 
supported by a miscellaneous command of volunteers, he fired seve- 
ral shots at the enemy with great effect. After being closely pursued 
into the ravines which led to the lower valley, they made some 
attempts to charge the artillery, but were finally driven back in con 
fused mass, and did not again appear upon the plain. 

The roar of artillery, which had lasted from before sunrise, now 
partially ceased on the principal field, the enemy apparently confining 
his efforts to the protection of his artillery. General Taylor had just 
left the main depot, w r hen he w T as unexpectedly recalled by a heavy 
fire of musketry. On regaining his position, a stirring scene was 
presented. The Illinois and 2d Kentucky cavalry had been attacked 
in a rugged defile by an overwhelming force of both cavalry and 
infantry, and were now struggling alone against fearful odds. Could 
the enemy succeed in defeating these troops, they might renew the 
main attack with great advantage, and perhaps gain the day. To 
prevent the catastrophe, Captain Bragg, who had just arrived from 
the left, was immediately ordered into battery. Feeling how impor- 
tant w r as every moment, that brave officer abandoned some of his 
heaviest carriages, and pushed forward with those that could move 
most rapidly. Gaining a point from which they could be used, he 
placed them in battery, and loaded with canister. His position was 
one of imminent peril. The supporting infantry had been routed, 
the advance artillery captured, and the enemy, flushed with victory, 
were throwing their masses towards him. He appealed to the com- 
manding general for help. None was to be had ; and nerving him- 
self for his terrible duties, he returned to the battery, and spoke a few 
low, hurried words to his men.* Silently, but firmly they gathered 
round their pieces, and awaited orders. The commanding general 
sat on horseback, gazing with thrilling intensity upon that handful 
of troops. After all the losses and triumphs of the day, victory had 
eluded their grasp, to hang upon the approaching struggle. 

* In connection with this period of the battle, an anecdote is told, which, although we 
cannot vouch for its truth, is plausible, and highly characteristic. When Bragg applied 
to the general for reinforcements, the latter was sitting upon his horse, watching with 
deep solicitude the advance of the enemy's host. His reply to the request was — " I have 
no reinforcement to give, but Major Bliss and I will support you." Accordingly, "Major 
Bliss and I" put spurs to their horses, and were soon beside the cannon, where they 
r emained until the Mexicans had retreated. 



BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. 



379 




The cavalry were almost near enough to spring upon his guns, 
when Bragg gave the order to fire. Suddenly they halted, staggered 
a few paces, and then closed for the charge. The shouts of their 
supporting infantry followed the roar of artillery, and they again ad- 
vanced. The cannoneers had marked the effect, with feelings too 
intense to admit of outward expression, and rapidly reloading, they 
again poured forth a shower of grape. The effect was fearful ; and 
General Taylor, as he beheld the bleeding columns, felt that the day 
was his own. A third discharge completed the rout. Discipline 
gave way among the enemy to the confused flight of terrified hosts, 
as pouring through the rugged passes, they trod each other down in 
their hurried course. One wild shout went up from the American 
army, broken at short intervals by the thunder of Bragg's artillery. 

This final repulse was not accomplished without a melancholy loss. 
It fell heaviest on the Kentuckians, of whom Colonels McKee and 
Clay were both killed. The former fell amid some rocks, pierced 
with a mortal wound, and was subsequently hacked and mutilated by 



380 



BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA. 




General Taylor and Captain Bragg at Buena Vista. 



the enemy's bayonets. Lieutenant-Colonel Clay was wounded in 
the leg, and sat down near a rock. But his sorrowing followers 
rushed from their ranks, amid the enemy's fire, and bore him in their 
arms. Although the Mexicans pressed closely behind, the soldiers 
carried him until the road became so rugged that two could scarcely 
walk together. He then begged them to leave him and take care of 
themselves, which they were at length compelled to do. The Mexi- 
cans surrounded him, stabbing him with their bayonets, as he endea- 
voured to defend himself with his sword. 

Colonel Hardin, the pride of the Illinois regiment, was killed in 
the same charge with Clay and McKee. 

In the retreat of the enemy, a portion of the American infantry 
pursued them through a ravine so far that they got out of supporting 
distance. On seeing this, the Mexicans suddenly wheeled round 
and attacked them. The infantry were in their turn driven back, 
taking the course of another ravine, at the end of which a body of the 
enemy were waiting to intercept them. Fortunately, while the ca- 
valry were pursuing, they came within range of Washington's battery, 
which, opening upon them with grape, drove back their column in 
confusion, and saved the exhausted fugitives. 

This was the last struggle on the well-fought field of Buena Vista. 
For ten hours the battle had raged with unmitigated fury, and yet, 
strange to say, each army occupied the ground that it had early in 
the morning. As night crept among the rocky gorges, the wearied 
soldiers sunk down on their arms upon the field. Although the air 



PREPARATIONS OF TAYLOR. 



381 




was excessively cold, the Americans slept without fires, expecting a. 
renewal of the attack early on the following morning. The night was 
one of horror. On every rock, and in every defile, piles of dead and 
wounded lay, the latter writhing in torture, their wounds stiff and 
clotted with the chill air, while their piercing shrieks for aid, and 
supplications for water, made the night hideous. The whole medical 
staff were busy until morning, dressing wounds, amputating limbs, 
and removing the dead to Saltillo. The wolves and jackals stole 
from the caverns of the mountains, and howled in startling chorus, 
over the banquet prepared for them by man. 

The wounded being all removed to Saltillo before morning, Gene- 
ral Taylor made every preparation to receive the enemy on the fol- 
lowing morning. Seven fresh companies were drawn from the town, 
and Brigadier-General Marshall, with a reinforcement of Kentucky 
cavalry, and four heavy guns, under Captain Prentiss, was ordered 
on duty. 

That Santa Anna had determined to renew the attack on the 24th, 
there can be little doubt. The fearful condition of his troops, how- 
ever, forbade the attempt, and before daylight he was in full retreat 
to Agua Nueva. The troops were starving, worn out with the toils 



382 



RELATIVE FORCES ENGAGED 




Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Clay, Jr. 



of marching and fighting, and burning with thirst. Desertion, which 
had been prevented only by the hope of gaining the American camp, 
and by confidence in the ability of their general to carry it, now broke 
forth, when these restrictions were removed, with alarming violence, 
threatening in one night to disorganize the Mexican host. 

The American force engaged in this battle, was four thousand 
seven hundred and sixty-nine men, of whom three hundred and 
forty-four were officers. This estimate is exclusive of the small com- 
mand left in and around Saltillo. The entire regular force was only 
two squadrons of cavalry and three batteries of light artillery, in all 
not more than four hundred and fifty-three men. The strength of 
General Santa Anna, as stated by himself, was twenty thousand, a 
number which was even increased by accounts from prisoners. Be- 
sides these, General Minon had a large force near Saltillo. The 
whole force, then, of the Mexican army, may be safely stated at more 
than twenty-one thousand men. 

The loss of the Americans was two hundred and sixty-seven killed, 
four hundred and fifty-six wounded, and twenty-three missing. Of 



EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 383 

the wounded, many did not require removal to the hospital, and a 
comparative small number were permanently disabled. General 
Santa Anna states his loss at fifteen hundred ; but this was probably 
below the actual number. More than five hundred of his dead were, 
left upon the battle-field. An able writer makes the following re- 
marks on the American loss: — "The list of killed and wounded on 
the American side, is a mournful proof of the ferocity and violence 
which characterized this severe conflict, and a sad testimonial of the 
chivalry and fearlessness of the American soldiery. Sixty-five com- 
missioned officers killed and wounded in so small an army, exhibits 
a proportion and result unparalleled in the history of war. Esti- 
mating General Taylor's force at five thousand rank and file, and 
allowing one commissioned officer to twenty men, the startling con- 
clusion is arrived at, that our loss in this sanguinary engagement, of 
commissioned officers, amounted to one-fourth of the number in the 
field. If the loss of the rank and file were in like proportion to that 
of officers, it would exceed one thousand two hundred. In view of 
such terrible results as these, Santa Anna approached as near the 
truth, melancholy as it is, as he ever did, when he said that both 
armies were cut up ,******* The army of General Taylor may 
be considered as reduced at least one-third by casualties and by de- 
tails to take care of the wounded." 

Although on the morning of the 24th, Santa Anna had fallen back 
to Agua Nueva, yet the American general did not think it prudent 
to pursue him. The great disparity of numbers, and the exhaustion 
of the troops, might have rendered such a step extremely critical. A 
staff officer was despatched to negotiate an exchange of prisoners, 
which was satisfactorily accomplished on the following day. The 
dead were collected and buried, and a large number of Mexican 
wounded left upon the field, were removed to Saltillo, and rendered 
as comfortable as circumstances would permit. 

On the morning of the 26th, the enemy's position was closely re- 
connoitered, and was found to be occupied only by a small body of 
cavalry, the infantry and artillery having retreated in the direction of 
San Luis Potosi. Accordingly, on the 27th, the American troops 
resumed their former camp at Agua Nueva, the enemy's rear guard 
evacuating the place as they approached, leaving a considerable body 
of wounded. General Taylor was anxious to examine and threaten 
their quarters at Encarnacion on the following morning; but the 
cavalry horses were too much exhausted to attempt so long a march 
without water. On the 1st of March, however, Colonel Belknap, 
with a small command, was sent against that place. He found there 
about sixty Mexican soldiers, and about two hundred wounded, their 



384 REMARKS ON THE BATTLE. 

main army having passed on in the direction of Matahuela. Their 
numbers were much reduced, the men suffering greatly with hunger, 
while lying in the road, and crowding the buildings of the hacienda 
were the sick and disabled, the dead and dying, affording sad proof 
of the ravages of war. 

On the 26th, General Taylor issued his congratulatory orders to 
the army, thanking officers and men for their good behaviour during 
the action. Similar orders were issued by the Mexican commander. 
On receiving news of the battle, the governor of San Luis Potosi 
published a proclamation, claiming it as a victory. 

We have before adverted to the difficulty of describing the action 
at Buena Vista, arising from the complexity of its operations. A 
similar difficulty is experienced in forming an impartial and compre- 
hensive opinion as to its actual merits. Throughout the whole day, 
the position of the American army was rather that of defending a 
fortified work, than of fighting a pitched battle ; and in fact the 
ground was better adapted to defensive warfare than any fortification 
could have been, unless possessing strength of the first order. The 
configuration of the whole field was such, that all cavalry movements 
were nearly paralyzed, and even the masses of infantry were some- 
times divided, and their movements deranged. The pass of Angos- 
tura, in which Washington's battery was placed, is one of the strongest 
in Mexico, and by a small party could be defended against almost 
any odds. The right wing of the army was also admirably situated, 
so as to rest its flanks on the western mountains on one side, and on 
impassable ravines on the other, while an enemy must approach over 
broken surfaces, exposed to full fire. The plateau forming the key 
of the American position, was so high as to command all the neigh- 
bouring ground, east and west, to the mountains, and could be 
reached only through intricate windings, formed by ledges of rocks. 
Through these the enemy moved to the attack ; and if their charge 
was such as to rout one regiment, drive back another, and silence 
the artillery, we may judge of the effect which would have attended 
their operations upon a field like that of Palo Alto. The only occa- 
sion in which an open ground was presented to both parties was at 
the charge upon Buena Vista ; but here, it will be remembered, the 
enemy's column had been lacerated by passing the ordeal of Bragg's 
artillery, May's supporting infantry, and other companies. 

But while the candid historian is obliged to exhibit the difficulties 
against which Santa Anna contended, he must not be supposed to 
imply that they at all detracted from the courage of the American 
general in risking such a battle, or the conduct of his men in sustain- 
ing it. Only a handful of his little band had ever seen an action, the 



REMARKS ON THE BATTLE. 385 

remainder being freshly levied troops, who, under any other than an 
American general, would have been employed with caution and dis- 
trust. Confiding in their valour, he intrusted to them the fate of the 
battle, the safety of his army, the security of previous conquests, and 
his personal popularity. 

It was the commander's influence over their minds that wrought 
the soldiers to enthusiasm at sight of the enemy, and nerved each 
soul during the terrible encounter. The whole battle was a series 
of charges on the one hand, and cannonading on the other. It 
afforded an opportunity not only for each regiment of the Americans to 
bear the brunt of action, but also for each one to save the day. The 
artillery, in the language of the commanding general, did wonders. 
Had O'Brien not maintained his position as he did, confusion and 
rout would have ensued. The same would have followed a repulse 
of Captain Bragg or Captain Washington. But even after these officers 
had behaved as they did, the day would have been lost had either 
the Illinois regiment, the Mississippi, the Kentucky, or the 3d Indiana 
been routed. Each man, therefore, of those who maintained the 
whole battle did his duty ; and to this unanimity of action, controlled 
as it was by confidence in their general, and supported by the laud- 
able emulation between the volunteers from different states, we must 
refer the greater portion of success. The remainder is owing to the 
cordial co-operation of the officers of companies with their men, 
which continually exposed them to the greatest dangers, and was the 
cause of the large list of killed and wounded officers ; to the remem- 
Drance of former triumphs ; and lastly, in no little degree to the 
ardent ambition to defeat the greatest chief of Mexico. 

Unfortunately for the Mexicans, they were not possessed of the 
same unanimity which marked the resistance of their antagonists. 
Their movement from the front of the American army along its left 
flank to the rear, was an admirable one, but several of their cavalry 
sections did not perform their evolutions in time, and thus mainly 
counteracted the effect. General Minon also failed to obey orders 
to attack the rear, a circumstance which perhaps saved the hacienda 
of Buena Vista. 

In effect, this action was one of the most decisive of the whole 
war. Had victory declared in favour of Santa Anna, the American 
army would have been completely annihilated. The conduct of the 
Mexicans, in murdering the wounded on the field, and taking scarcely 
any prisoners, clearly evinces this. 

News of the battle was received, throughout the United States, 
with a burst of enthusiastic admiration, saddened only by the remem- 
brance of the gallant spirits who had sacrificed themselves to win it. 
2K 49 





386 LOSS OF WAGONS. 

Every demonstration of joy was exhibited in favour of the general 
and army, who had achieved such a triumph ; and official bodies 
voted various testimonials of respect to the commander-in-chief. 

ENERAL TAYLOR despatch- 
ed the news of this battle to 
Washington on the 2d of 
March, intrusting his papers 
to Mr. Crittenden of Ken- 
tucky. He was accompanied by an escort 
of two hundred and sixty troops, and one 
hundred and fifty wagons, under Major 
Giddings. On the 7th they were met, 
near Seralvo, by General Urrea, with about 
fifteen hundred Mexicans, who immedi- 
ately commenced an attack. The lancers swept by the rear and flank 
of the Americans, hoping to throw them into confusion ; but the artil- 
lery and musketry being brought to bear upon them, they retired 
with some loss. While this was going on, a number of team-drivers, 
becoming frightened, deserted their wagons, forty of which were cap- 
tured by the enemy and burned. One of these, being an ammuni- 
tion wagon, exploded, killing and wounding ten Mexicans, and 
causing a number to run away. The train of wagons being now 
broken, the enemy placed themselves between the rear guard and 
main body, so as to capture an infantry company, and a piece of 
artillery, forming the rear. The major ordered Captain Bradly to 
open a communication between the two portions ; but, while he was 
preparing to do so, Captain Kneally, who had commanded the rear, 
arrived, and informed Giddings that his party was surrounded, and 
had received a demand for a surrender, and also that he had had an 
interview with Langberg, commander of the party that had assailed 
him. One hour had been allowed to make up his mind. Major 
Giddings immediately requested of the Mexican officer that the truce 
might terminate, and instructed Captain Bradly to cut his way through 
to the rear. This was gallantly executed by that officer, who drove 
away the masses on each side of his course, reached Kneally's party, 
and saved the remainder of the wagons. Some skirmishing ensued, 
which lasted until evening, when the lancers withdrew to Seralvo. 
A party of the enemy were afterwards driven from some springs in 
the neighbourhood, and before morning their whole force left the 
town. The Americans entered it on the 8th. 

In this affair, Major Giddings lost two privates, both of Bradley's 
company, and fifteen teamsters ; the Americans had forty-five killed 
and wounded. 



PURSUIT OF URREA. 



387 



A few days after this battle, Colonel Curtis reached Seralvo, on his 
road to Monterey. He had with him a strong force, and was in pur- 
suit of Urrea. Continuing his pursuit, he came up with General 
Taylor on the 18th, at Marin. The general had with him May's 
dragoons, and two companies of Bragg's artillery, with which he had 
left Agua Nueva to pursue Urrea. But, although the chase was 
vigorously maintained until the latter end of March, Urrea managed 
to elude his formidable pursuers, and retreated beyond the moun- 
tains. The American general retired to Walnut Springs. 




Mexicans killing the Wounded at Buena Vista, 




Mexican Indians. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



CONQUEST OF CALIFOMA AND NEW MEXICO. 



^^^-^ ^^Tt^^ ^^ ALIFORNIA , though a part of the re- 
public of Mexico, has always been iso- 
lated from it, forming a distinct country, 
with nothing common to it and Mexico, 
except that the inhabitants are of the same race. 

Grijalva, as we have before noticed, discovered 
Lower California in 1534, and towards the close 
of the succeeding century, the Jesuits established 
themselves in it to convert the natives. They 
found them in the rudest state of barbarism, but 
weak and indolent, living by hunting, fishing, and the sponta- 
neous produce of the soil. The efforts of the missionaries have 
nominally converted about half the natives to Christianity, but the 
numbers of the native inhabitants are rapidly decreasing, and the 
population of the country does not number much more than fifteeD 
(388) 




DESCRIPTION OF CALIFORNIA. 



3S9 




Pearl Divers. 



thousand. The peninsula of Lower California is about seven hundred 
miles in length, and ranges from thirty to one hundred in breadth, 
giving altogether an area of some thirty-eight thousand square miles. 
It has argentiferous lead ores, and some mines of gold and silver, but 
these have been neglected, perhaps on account of the greater induce- 
ments to adventurers to embark in the pearl fishery. In the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries, large quantities of pearls were ob- 
tained by the Spaniards, whose cruelty to the natives brought about 
the interference of the Jesuits, and the fisheries have since steadily 
declined. The divers are brought in vessels from the opposite coast 
of the Californian gulf. The last authentic account of an expedition 
thither gave the number of vessels at four, with one hundred and 
eighty divers, and the results at about twelve thousand dollars. • In 
the seventeenth century, when vessels rating fifty tons were employed, 
the royal fifth usually produced about twelve thousand dollars for 
every vessel employed. At present the proceeds of the expedition 
are shared out after this manner. The largest oysters are laid aside 
for the Virgin, and the remainder are counted out in the proportion 
of eight for the divers, eight for the owners, and two for the govern- 
ment. The greatest advantage is probably derived by the traders on 
shore, who supply the divers with spirits, chocolate, sugar, tobacco, 
and necessaries. Sixteen or eighteen little vessels are annually em- 
ployed in the gulf, yielding about a thousand dollars each. The 
2k2 



390 



DESCRIPTION OF CALIFORNIA. 




products of the sea, if properly managed, would make amends for 
the barrenness of the land. 

HE surface of the country 
consists of groups of 
bare rocks, broken by 
ravines and hills, in- 
terspersed with tracts 
of a sandy soil, nearly 
as unproductive. The 
sheltered valleys yield 
maize and a great va- 
riety of fruits. There 
are some harbours on 
the coast, but the in- 
different soil near them 
makes them ineligible 
for the sites of towns. 
A chain of rocky 
mountains, about five 
thousand feet high, runs through the peninsula, from south-east to 
north-west, into Upper California, where it divides into several 
ranges, diverging as they advance north. 

The part of Upper California, inhabited by foreign settlers, is chiefly 
a tract extending five hundred miles along the shore of the Pacific, 
and bounded inland at an average distance of forty miles from the 
coast by a range of hills. The most southern portion of this region 
is torrid and parched, like the climate and soil of Lower California, 
but as we proceed north, the climate becomes more favourable, 
though the country is subject to long and severe droughts, which 
occasion great distress. There are many streams in this part of Cali- 
fornia, which carry off the water in torrents to the ocean, during the 
rainy season, and cause the valleys which they water to afford good 
pasturage for cattle, which are found there in large numbers. There 
are but two tracts of country capable of supporting a large popula- 
tion, one west of Mount San Barnardin, about the thirty-fourth de- 
gree of latitude, and the other surrounding the Bay of San Francisco, 
and the lower part of the Sacramento. Nearly all the establishments 
made by the Spaniards in the country, prior to the revolution, have 
declined with the fall of the power that upheld them, but the com- 
merce which has been since that period, commenced and maintained 
by the Americans, has increased the population and resources of the 
towns. The first settlement established by the Spaniards is San 
Diego, now a town of three hundred inhabitants, about a mile from 



DESCRIPTION OF CALIFORNIA. 



391 




San Francisco, California. 

the north shore of a bay, which communicates with the ocean, in the 
latitude of thirty-two degrees, forty-one minutes, and which runs ten 
miles inland, affording entrance to vessels of any size, and a safe 
anchorage from all winds. The passage leading into it is defended 
by fortifications, which if properly manned and armed, would render 
the town secure from all naval attacks.* 

San Juan is a small place on an unsafe harbour, sixty miles north- 
west from San Diego. San Pedro is not far distant from San Juan, 
in the same direction, on a bay sheltered from the north-west winds, 
but exposed to those from the south-west. The country near these 
places is sandy and barren ; but at a short distance inland, in a north- 
easterly direction, is the fertile tract above mentioned, as lying near 
Mount San Barnardin. Wherever this part is properly irrigated it 
produces wheat, vines, olives, and a variety of fruits. In its midst, 
thirty miles north from San Pedro, is the largest town in California, 
San Pueblo de los Angelos, containing one thousand inhabitants. 
Near it is the mission of San Gabriel, the vineyards in the vicinity of 
which formerly supplied the missionaries with good wine. 

A hundred miles westward of San Pedro is Cape Conception, 
greatly dreaded on account of the frequent and violent storms en- 
countered in its vicinity. Opposite to this cape are the eight islands 



* Greenhow. 



392 



DESCRIPTION OF CALIFORNIA 





(^ss^isai 




Santa Barbara. 



of Santa Barbara, four of which are barren rocks, and the others, 
Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Santa Catilina, and San Clemente, contain 
from fifteen to twenty square miles. The channel of Santa Barbara 
separates the island of Santa Cruz from the main land, on which are 
situated the town, fort, and mission of Santa Barbara. The harbour 
is an open roadstead, sheltered only from the north and west winds 
of winter, and consequently unsafe in the hot months, on account of 
the violent hurricanes and storms from the south-west, which then 
prevail. A sandy plain stretches from the town to the Santa Barbara 
range of mountains. These end a hundred miles north of Cape Con- 
ception, in a point called the Punta de Pinos, or Cape of Pines, be- 
tween which and the Punta de Nuevo Ano, Cape New Year, twenty- 
four miles north, is the bay of Monterey. This is an almost semi- 
circular indentation of the coast, on the southernmost part of which 
stands San Carlos de Monterey, the seat of government of California. 
The harbour is very good, though but an open roadstead ; the castle 
and the fort are mud w T alls, never well manned, and the town itself 
boasts but a small number of mud-built houses. The mission is in a 
valley three miles south of the town, but its buildings are dilapidated 
and nearly deserted. But little is produced from the soil in the 
neighbourhood, although it would be fertile if properly cultivated.* 



* Greenhow 




liiiiiiii ;io 

50 



DESCRIPTION OF CALIFORNIA. 



395 




Anchorage at Yerba Buena. 



North of the bay of Monterey is the mission of Santa Cruz, a resort 
of the vessels in the Pacific for water and provisions, and farther in 
the interior is the town of Branciforte. Still farther north is a bold 
promontory called Punta de los Reyes, the Cape of Kings, immedi- 
ately south-east of which is the bay of San Francisco, which contains, 
among the high hills surrounding it, some of the most beautiful, con- 
venient, and secure harbours in the world. The southern branch of 
the bay extends thirty miles south-eastward, into a delightful country, 
watered by streams from the hills and the lakes of Tule. The north- 
ern branch is contracted into two passages, forming between them a 
basin called the bay of San Pablo, which connects by the strait of 
Carquines with another basin, containing many islands, .into which 
empty the Sacramento, and some smaller streams. The Sacramento 
has a very tortuous course, three hundred miles in length, one hun- 
dred of which are navigable from its mouth. The country watered 
by this river is well adapted for the support of a numerous popula- 
tion, and the settlements in its vicinity have advanced more rapidly 
than those of any other part of California. At the southern extremity 
of the bay are the mission of Santa Clara and the town of San Jose, 
on the north the missions of San Rafael and San Francisco Solana. 
All of these obtain from the soil near them, grains, fruits, and pas- 
turage for large herds of cattle. Near the south side of the passage 
connecting the bay with the ocean at the termination of the San 
Buno mountains, are the town, mission, and fort of San Francisco. A 



396 



DESCRIPTION OF CALIFORNIA. 



cove some miles south of the entrance passage, between the western 
shore of the bay and the island of Yerba Buena, is the principal 
anchorage for vessels, and here a settlement has been formed by the 
Americans and English, which takes its name from that of the island. 
Of this place, now chiefly held by recent American settlers, whose 
presence caused the immediate appearance of the great American 
means of civilization, the newspaper press, the California Star speaks 
as follows: " The site of the town is handsome and commanding, 
being an inclined plane of about a mile in extent, from the water's 
edge to the hills in the rear. Two points of land, one on each side, 
extending into the bay, form a crescent, or a small bay in the shape 
of a crescent, in front, which bears the name of the town. These 
points afford a fine view of the surrounding country; the snow-capped 
mountains in the distance ; the green valleys beneath them ; the beau- 
tiful, smooth, and unruffled bay in front and on either side, at once 
burst upon the eye. There is, in front of the town, a small island, 
rising high above the surface of the bay, about two miles long and 
one wide, which is covered the greater part of the year with the most 
exuberant herbage, of untrodden freshness. This little island is 
about three miles from the shore. Between it and the town is the 
principal anchorage. Here the vessels of all nations rest in safety 
and peace, and their flags are displayed by the aromatic breeze. 
Two hundred yards from the shore there is twenty-four feet water, 
and a short distance beyond that as many fathoms. 

><ss> ™ - - - HE climate is here, in the winter 

Y N w T hich is the rainy season, damp 
and chilly. During the rest of the 
year, it is dry, but chiefly in con- 
sequence of the continual strong 
winds from north and north-west. 
There is but little variation in the 
atmosphere throughout the year ; 
the thermometer ranging from 
fifty-five to seventy degrees. Yer- 
ba Buena is one of the most 
healthy places on the whole coast 
of the Pacific. Sickness of any 
kind is rarely known there. The 
salubrity of the climate — beauty 
of the site of the town — its con- 
tiguity to the mouth of the bay — 
the finest harbour on the whole 
coast in front — the rich and beautiful country around it, all conspire 




PRODUCTIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 



397 



to render Yerba Buena one of the best commercial points in the 
world. 

North of Cape de los Reyes, are two small settlements, which 
were begun by the Russians, for the purpose of supplying their more 
northern possessions with beef and grain ; but their relations with 
the Spaniards and Mexicans were always unfriendly, and they sold 
out their establishments to American adventurers. 

The interior of California is little known. It has been frequently 
traversed by the Catholic priest, and the American trader, but one 
was absorbed in his spiritual warfare and the other in trade, and 
neither have given authentic accounts of the face of the country. 

The more northern portion is a wilderness of lofty mountains, the 
southern is a desert of sandy plains and rocky hills, and lakes, and 
marshes having no outlet. There is little probability of any portion 
of this region being inhabited, except that in the vicinity of the Colo- 
rado river, which rises near the forty-first degree of north latitude, 
among the Rocky mountains, and flows south-westward, receiving 
other streams, until it reaches the Gulf of California. All the ex- 
plorers who have visited California describe it as a magnificent 
country. 

lUigj HE variety of the surface, the soil, 

;r ;i rich loam, the thick and abundant 



forests, the immense pastures, and 
the arrangement of the mountains 
tending to preserve a perpetual 
spring, have all conspired to lure 
thither the adventurous spirits of 
America ; and there can be no 
doubt that the country, remote as 
it is, will be filled up much more 
rapidly than equally good districts 
not possessed of the enchantment 
of distance. Mr. Forbes, who was 
for several years, the consul of Great Britain, in one of the Mexican 
ports on the Pacific, speaks in the highest terms of (he country, and 
gives tabular proofs of the accuracy of his statements. Vancouver 
was struck with the quantity and variety of the productions of the 
country round the mission of Buena Ventura, appertaining to the tem- 
perate as well as to the torrid zone ; such as apples, pears, plums, 
figs, oranges, grapes, pomegranates, plantains, bananas, cocoanuts, 
sugarcane, indigo, and every useful variety of kitchen plants, and 
medicinal roots. And Mr. Forbes adds, that it would not be easy 
to match such an assemblage as this elsewhere, and yet this is only 
2L 




39S PROMPTITUDE OF AMERICAN OFFICERS. 

a part of the fruits and vegetables now cultivated in California. In 
his work he speaks with favour of a project not at all agreeable to 
our feelings as Americans. This is the cancelling of a debt owed to 
England by a transfer of the Californias to her creditors. It would 
be a wise measure on the part of Mexico, he says, if the government 
could be brought to lay aside the vanity of retaining large possessions. 
The cession of such a disjointed part of the republic as California, 
would be an advantage. In no case can it ever be profitable to the 
Mexican republic, nor can it possibly remain united to it for any 
length of time. Therefore giving up this territory would be getting 
rid of this last for nothing. 

The difficulty having arisen in the mind of the statesmanlike author 
as to how it should be held, he concludes that if California were 
ceded for the English debt, the creditors might be formed into a 
company, having a sort of sovereignty over the territory — somewhat 
in the manner of the East India Company. This, in his opinion, 
would certainly bring a revenue in time, which might be equal to 
the debt ; and, under good management, and with an English popu- 
lation, would most certainly realize all that has been predicted of 
this fine country. The promptitude of Commodore Jones, the ro- 
mantic bravery and gallant daring of Colonel Fremont, the chivalry 
of Commodore Stockton, and the abilities of General Kearny, added 
to the far-sighted policy of the statesmen of America, have reserved 
for the citizens of the United States the right of realizing these pre- 
dictions, and saved to the British consul-statesman any further anxiety 
as to how California may be held. 

HE value and advantageous position of that 
country is known and appreciated no less 
in America than in England ; and the 
rulers of the Three Kingdoms have once 
more been shown that there exists in Ame- 
rica a power capable and willing to put a 
■ check upon that monopolizing ambition 
which would encircle the globe with a net- 
work of colonial strong holds, from which to harass and annoy every 
other nation in times of war; and in peace and in war to pour out 
the tributary wealth of all the world at the foot of the throne of Great 
Britain. California is in the hands of the American people, who are 
beginning rapidly to emigrate thither. Their commercial interests 
with the Hawaian Islands and with Asia, will immediately become 
important ; and a frequent intercourse with America, will com- 
mence the process of the social and political emancipation of the 
enslaved millions of Asia. 




KEARNY ORDERED TO SANTA FE. 



399 



Intending to detach the states of New Mexico from the central 
government, the cabinet at Washington determined to order the 
organization of a body of troops known as " the Army of the West," 
to march to Santa Fe, and taking that as the centre of operations, 
subjugate the northern provinces of Mexico. Colonel Stephen W. 
Kearny was appointed to the command of this corps, which was after- 
wards increased in force as the duties assigned it became more 
arduous and extensive. The ability and kindness of heart of Colonel 
Kearny made him very popular in the West, where the inhabitants 
so instinctively recognize and encourage military talent, and his only 
difficulty in mustering the forces called for was in selecting those who 
should be taken from among the numerous volunteers. The orders 
for the expedition were received in May, 1846, and in the month of 
June, Colonel Kearny commenced his march from Fort Leavenworth, 
with a body of about one thousand seven hundred and fifty men, 
among them were eight hundred and fifty men forming a mounted 
regiment, under Colonel Doniphan, two companies of infantry, under 
Captains Angney and Murphy, five companies of the first regiment 
United States dragoons, a battalion of flying artillery, under Major 
Clark, composed of two companies from St. Louis, under Captains 
Fischer and Weightman, and a company of dragoons, under Captain 
Hudson called the Laclede Rangers. 

HE officers of the volun- 
teer companies were some 
of them graduates from 
West Point, not in the 
regular service, and all 
men worthy of the esteem 
and confidence reposed in 
them by their men. While 
they were perfecting the 
discipline of the army, 
General Kearny had col- 
lected ordnance, subsist 
ence, a thousand mules for 
draught, ordnance horses, 
wagons, baggage trains, 
and other stores. Lieutenants Emory, Warner, Abert, and Peck, 
of the United States topographical engineers, hastened to join the 
expedition, and the whole army set out on the march with an eager- 
ness not a little heightened by the rumour that Governor Armijo was 
in arms at the head of four thousand Mexicans, about a hundred 
oo'les from Santa Fe, ready to intercept their march to that place. 




400 



KEARNY S MARCH. 




Dragoons Exercisin 



They moved on rapidly to Bent's Fort, a trading post for the Indians, 
named after its owners, who have merely erected a square of mud 
houses, with a stockade round it. The march was attended with 
difficulties appalling to the hearts of any other than the daring spirits 
of the West. For days together they would be employed in crossing 
immense plains, presenting a flat surface to the eye, producing in 
some places only short, poor grass, in others a rank luxuriance, but 
for miles neither bush nor tree. 

At times the rain fell in torrents, beating through the tents, and 
soaking into the blankets of the poor soldiers, who lay upon the 
muddy ground in the utmost discomfort. Again the very grass of the 
prairies would seem to engender myriads of gnats, who would put 
men and horses to the greatest torment, penetrating their ears, eyes, 
and nostrils. Gusts of hot wind, compared by the sufferers to blasts 
from a furnace, came upon them. On the southern bank of the Ar- 
kansas were to be found only large sand-hills, entirely destitute of 
vegetation, the barrenness of which disappointed the troops the more 
because the rays of the sun playing upon their pointed tops, gave to 
them at a distance the appearance of large cities, in which gilded domes 
of churches, and the roofs of houses seemed plainly distinguishable. 
Herds of buffaloes roamed over the country, and packs of Mexican 
gray wolves followed the camp, attracted from a great distance by 
their high powers of scent, to feed upon the offal of the cattle slain 
for food, or the carcass of a dead horse. Their howling kept the 
poor soldiers awake at nights, while rattlesnakes would not unfre- 



KEARNY ORDERED TO CALIFORNIA. 



401 





Bent's Fort 



quently come, attracted by the warmth of his body, to share his bed. 
After leaving Bent's Fort, the grass and water became very scarce, 
and the prudence of Kearny caused him to put the army upon a 
rather short allowance of food. Some merrily congratulated their 
fellows upon the kindness of their leader, who thus preserved them 
from the well-known bad consequences of a full habit in case they 
should be wounded in battle. 

Colonel Kearny had some time before received a letter of instruc- 
tions from the war department, in which he was informed that the 
president considered it of the greatest importance to get possession 
of Upper California, and that the expedition under his command was 
expected to effect it. An additional force of one thousand mounted 
men had been called for, which was to follow him in the direction 
of Santa Fe, and be under the orders of himself, or whomsoever he 
should leave in command there. When he had got possession of 
Santa Fe, if a small force would be sufficient to garrison it, he was 
to press forward to California. The great body of Mormon emi- 
grants on the way to California was mentioned, and the propriety 
of establishing a good understanding with them pointed out. If they 
could be induced to raise a battalion of volunteers among their com- 
pany, Colonel Kearny was instructed to muster them into the ser- 
vice of the United States, to be paid as other volunteers, that they 
might aid him in taking and holding possession of California. If the 
2l2 51 



402 



ARRIVAL AT BENTS FORT. 



American citizens he should find in California were willing to embody 
themselves as soldiers, for the same end, he was authorized to re- 
ceive them also into the service of the United States. The naval 
force in the Pacific would co-operate with him, and his supplies of 
ordnance, ammunition, and stores, would be sent round thither by 
sea. He was directed to establish civil governments in the places 
he should capture, in both New Mexico and California ; to take the 
oath of the officers of government to yield allegiance to the United 
States ; to reduce the duties at the custom-houses ; and to assure the 
people every where that it was the intention of the United States to 
provide for them a free government, similar to that which existed in 
the territories, when they would be called upon as freemen to exer- 
cise the right of electing representatives to their territorial legislature. 

HE inhabitants were to be concili- 
ated, and made as friendly as pos- 
sible to the United States, and the 
trade between the western states 
and the Mexican provinces was to 
be encouraged. In concluding 
this despatch, Colonel Kearny was 
informed that he would receive a 
commission as brevet brigadier- 
general as soon as he commenced 
his march to California. So ad- 
mirable was the discipline of 
General Kearny, and the spirit 
of his men, that the two infantry 
companies arrived at Bent's Fort 
in advance of the mounted men, 
and the different companies march- 
ed into that place at the very hour set by the general for each, and the 
whole army on the day he had appointed. The march was commenced 
at Fort Leavenworth on the 30th of June, 1846, and Bent's Fort, at 
a distance of five hundred and sixty-four miles, was reached on the 
30th of July. The distance from Bent's Fort to Santa Fe is three hun- 
dred and nine miles. While the troops rested for a day or two, pre- 
vious to setting out for Santa Fe, a Mexican or two strayed into the 
encampment, sent byArmijo as spies to discover the number and re- 
sources of the army. General Kearny had them marched around 
about and through the camp, over and over again, showing them 
every thing, and giving them exaggerated ideas of the force of the 
army, when he dismissed them, with the message that he would see 
Armijo in a few days. On the 31st of July, General Kearny issued 




KEARNY S ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE. 



403 




a proclamation to the inhabitants of New Mexico, in conformity with 
the tenor of his instructions. At Bent's Fort he also had a talk with 
the Chyennes Indians. 

N the 3d of August, he 
pushed forward, and in 
ten days, during which 
the army suffered se- 
verely from sandy soil, 
bad grass, bad water, 
and insupportably hot 
winds, they began to 
ascend the first or Ra- 
tone chain of the Ilocky 
mountains. The ad- 
vance repeatedly cap- 
tured scouts from the 
enemy's forces, who 
would, when discovered, summon the Americans to surrender, and 
then lay down their own arms. Their weapons being taken from 
them, they were rearmed with proclamations and sent forth to the 
villages of their countrymen. Many of them made a very respectable 
appearance ; but they saw for themselves that they had little to hope 
from an encounter with an army composed of such materiel as Gene- 
ral Kearny's, and when the kind treatment and frank deportment of 
the general had added affection to their reverence, they were per- 
mitted to depart to counsel their countrymen against opposition to a 
chieftain who would treat those as friends who did not molest him, 
while he had a force sufficiently large to put down all opposition. 
On the 15th of August, the army passed through the Lower Moro 
village. The town consisted of a miserable collection of houses or 
huts, built half under ground, and consisting of a single room roofed 
with logs. From the top of one of these, General Kearny made a 
speech to the people, during which, he made the alcaldes swear 
allegiance to the United States, and hailed the people as citizens of 
that country. They shouted their satisfaction, which was made real 
joy by an exemplification of the justice of General Kearny, such as 
they would not have experienced in a century, under Mexican go- 
vernors. Notwithstanding his strict orders to the contrary, some of 
the animals of the army got into the fields near the town, and did 
some little damage to the standing crop of corn and wheat. Gene- 
ral Kearny summoned the alcalde, informed him of the circumstance, 
directed him to examine the fields, ascertain what the damage was 
to each man, and send a statement of it to Santa Fe, where they 



404 



ARRIVAL AT SAN MIGUEL. 



would be fully compensated. The intelligence of this incident 
doubtless spread through the surrounding region rapidly, as when 
General Kearny " naturalized" the people of the next villages, as he 
had done those of the Lower Moro, they displayed very great en- 
thusiasm, and brought forward their wives to exchange congratula- 
tions with the general. 

Captain Cooke had been sent forward to Santa Fe to communicate 
with Governor Armijo, and he now returned with the information that 
that functionary would oppose the invasion with an army. Antici- 
pating an attack in every mountain pass, General Kearny exercised 
the troops at each one, always getting his army through with a celerity 
that would have utterly disconcerted an enemy, had there been one 
at hand. 

N the 16th of August, the army came to 
San Miguel, a village built like the 
others of sunburnt bricks, with flat 
roofs. We extract from Lieutenant 
Emory's Journal, the following account 
of the proceedings at this place. " Af- 
ter much delay, the alcalde and the 
padre were found, and presented to 
General Kearny. They received him 
politely, but it was evident that they did 
not relish an interview with him. This 
village contains a respectable church, 
and about two or three hundred houses. 
The general expressed a wish to ascend one of the houses, with the 
priests and alcalde, and to address the people of the town, informing 
them of the object of his mission. After many evasions, delays, and 
useless speeches, the padre made a speech, stating that ' he was a 
Mexican, but should obey the laws that were placed over him for 
the time, but if the general should point all his cannon at his breast, 
he could not consent to go up there and address the people.' The 
general very mildly told him, through the interpreter, Mr. Robideau, 
that he had not come to injure him, nor did he wish him to address 
the people. He only wished him to go up there and hear him (the 
general) address them. The padre still fought shy, and commenced 
a long speech, which the general interrupted, and told him he had 
no time to listen to useless remarks, and repeated that he only wanted 
him to go up and listen to his speech. He consented. The general 
made pretty much the same remarks to the alcalde and the people 
that he had made to the people of the other villages. He assured 
them that he had an ample force and would have possession of the 




OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 405 

country against all opposition, but gave them assurances of the friend- 
ship and protection of the United States. He stated to them that 
this had never been given them by the government of Mexico, but 
that the United States were able and would certainly protect them, 
not only in their persons, property, and religion, but against the 
cruel invasions of the Indians. That they saw but a small part of 
the force that was at his disposal. Many more troops were near him 
on another road, (some of which he showed them a mile or two dis- 
tant,) and another army would probably pass through their village in 
three weeks. After this he said, ' Mr. Alcalde, are you willing to 
take the oath of allegiance to the United States ?' He replied that he 
would prefer waiting till the general had taken possession of the 
capital. The general told him, it was sufficient for him to know that 
he had possession of his village. He then consented, and with the 
usual formalities he said : ' You swear that you will bear true alle- 
giance to the United States of America.' The alcalde said, ' pro- 
vided I can be protected in my religion.' General Kearny said, 'I 
swear you shall be.' He then continued ; ' and that you will defend 
her against all her enemies and opposers, in the name of the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, Amen.' The general then said, 'I continue 
you as the alcalde of this village ; and require you, the inhabitants 
of this village, to obey him as such. Your laws will be continued 
for the present, — but as soon as I have time to examine them, if any 
change can be made that will be for your benefit, it shall be done.' 
After shaking hands with them, he left. The padre then invited 
him to his house, and gave him and his staff refreshments ; and after 
sundry hugs, jokes, and professions of friendships, with an expression 
from the general, that the ' better they became acquainted, the better 
friends they would be,' and an invitation to the padre to visit him 
at Santa Fe, (which he promised,) we left the village. The padre 
was evidently the ruling spirit of the village, and the alcalde was 
under great restraint by his presence. The visit to the priest, and 
the frank and friendly manner of the general had the desired effect, — 
and I believe they parted the best of friends, and have no doubt that 
the inhabitants of San Miguel will soon be as good democrats as can 
be found in Missouri." 

This is but one among many specimens of the humane and con- 
ciliating spirit which has generally actuated the officers of the United 
States in the prosecution of the recent war with Mexico. The con- 
trast afforded by the affability, magnanimity, and justice of our officers 
to the arrogance and oppression of their own rulers could not fail 
to produce a great effect. It acted forcibly upon a people whose 
sensibility to moral influences is by no means remarkable. 



406 



TAKING OF SANTA F E. 




;ENERAL KEARNY, on leaving this vil- 
lage, learned that Armijo had sent 
General Salazar to command the 
troops that were to oppose the Ame- 
ricans, saying that he would remain 
himself to defend the town. On the 
next day the son of Salazar was 
taken prisoner. He gave informa- 
tion of the departure of the Mexican 
army for their homes. He was de- 
tained as a prisoner, and the march 
continued with the same caution as 
before. Americans came from Santa 
Fe, reporting that Armijo had fled 
from that place towards Chihuahua, 
taking with him a hundred dragoons and his cannon. On the 18th 
of August, the army came to the canon, where a few days before 
three thousand Mexicans were assembled. But as the Americans 
approached they began to run away, and when they passed through, 
not an enemy was to be found. Notice was sent by General Kearny 
to Salazar, that his son would be held as a hostage for his be- 
haviour, and that any disturbance on his own part would prove fatal 
to his offspring. The army marched into the public square of Santa 
Fe, and were received by the acting governor and other dignitaries, 
to whom General Kearny gave assurances of safety and protection to 
all quiet citizens. Meanwhile Major Swords hoisted the stars and 
stripes on the flag-staff of the palace, and Captains Fischer and 
Weightman hailed it with a salute from their batteries. The first gun 
was fired at the moment the general was proclaiming the conquest 
of New Mexico. "There," said he, " my guns proclaim that the 
flag of the United States floats over this capital." The people made 
no objection. The general was mild and courteous in explaining 
his intentions to the populace, but gave them to understand that he 
would use the force at his disposal, if necessary. He would close 
his harangues after this manner, " I claim the whole of New Mexico 
for the United States. I put my hand on it from this moment, (bring- 
ing his hand firmly down on his thigh,) and demand obedience to its 
laws."* The people of Santa Fe were absolved from their allegiance 
to Mexico, General Kearny proclaimed himself governor of the pro- 
vince, and claimed the inhabitants as citizens of the United States. 
He had the address to quiet their fears and win their respect, and 



Lieutenant Emory's Journal. 



CAPTURE OF CANNON. 



407 




Santa Fe, New Mexico. 



they replied to the addresses delivered, when the alcalde took the 
oath of allegiance to the United States, with the cries of " long live 
the general." Captain Fischer retook the cannon carried off by 
Armijo in his flight. The gun taken from the Texans, of the famous 
Santa Fe expedition, had its carriage destroyed, and was hidden in 
the mountain, but the Americans dug it up and brought it into camp. 
It is a six-pounder, bearing the " lone star" of Texas, and the 
name of her ex-governor, M. B. Lamar. The Americans adopted it 
as a favourite, and used it in firing their morning and evening signals. 
Had Governor Armijo been half as courageous as he is known to 
be cruel, the army of General Kearny would probably have failed to 
reach Santa Fe. F. S. Edwards, Esq., one of the many intelligent 
gentlemen who displayed their patriotism by serving in the ranks on 
this arduous expedition, says, in his narrative of the campaign, — " The 
day on which we reached Santa Fe, we passed through the narrow 
defile in which we were to have been resisted. On seeing: the great 
advantages we should have had to fight against, we could only look 
at each other with a stare expressive of, ' we are well out of it.' The 
canon, or valley, in which the enemy were to have met us, winds 
between high mountains for miles, and then, after passing between 
two enormous perpendicular rocky precipices, ascends and widens 
gradually for some yards. The road is on a narrow shelf of the 
rock, only just wide enough for a wagon, the rest of the gorge being 



408 



DESCRIPTION OF SANTA FE. 



a deep, rocky gully, about twenty yards across. Just at the top of 
the slight ascent in the road, the Mexicans, it seems, had planted 
their battery, having felled some trees and thrown them across the 
pass, thus occupying a raking position along it. The rocks on each 
side being too steep to climb, the only way for us would have been 
to carry the position by a coup de main ; and this, well armed with 
artillery as they were, would have been no easy affair for us. In fact, 
five hundred resolute men could have defended the pass against 
twice our force. On the evening of the eighteenth day of August, 
we fired a salute of thirteen guns over the city of Santa Fe. Our 
first view of this place was very discouraging. Although much 
larger than any we had seen yet, still there were the same mud walls 
and roofs, and the accompaniments of dirt, pigs, and naked chil- 
dren. The city was, in a measure, deserted, the inhabitants having 
been persuaded that we should rob and ill treat every body, and de- 
stroy every thing. Sobbing and crying were heard from the houses, 
and it was only after a long speech from our general, that they were 
at all pacified. 

HE city of Santa Fe, although spread 
over a large extent of ground, is very 
thinly inhabited, and, with the excep- 
tion of the buildings around the public 
plaza, consists only of scattered huts, 
surrounded by large fields of Indian 
corn. On one side of the public square, 
which is of considerable extent, stands 
the governor's palace. It is the only 
building in the whole city having glazed 
windows. The palace is a long, mud 
edifice, one story high, with a portico 
formed by extending the roof some dis- 
tance over the street, and supported by 
smooth trunks of trees. This portico is 
also extended in front of all the houses 
facing the plaza, and it proved a com- 
fortable protection to our poor sentinels 
in rainy weather. The palace has, at one end, the government print- 
ing-office, and at the other the guard-house and calaboose, or prison. 
There are fearful stories, connecting Armijo's name with this prison, 
and the known brutality of his disposition has undoubtedly here led 
him to sacrifice, for their gold, better men than himself. Around the 
three remaining sides of the plaza were small shops, for the accom- 
modation of traders, who immediately hire them to show off their 





DESCRIPTION OF SANTA FE. 409 

goods to pedlers, who make this place their rendezvous. Indeed, it 
is this trade solely that gives Santa Fe its importance. These shops 
are not exactly such as our merchants at home would choose to show 
their goods in, being without a window. The only light that the 
dirty sales-room receives, is through the door. Fronting the go- 
vernor's palace, on the plaza, stands an old church, which was 
robbed of all its plate and ornaments some time before' we arrived. 
It is allowed to go to ruin in consequence of this desecration. 

ENERAL KEARNY occupied the governor's 
palace, and quarters were selected for the 
men, and a hospital arranged. The Mexi- 
can houses, although very uncomfortable look- 
ing from the outside, are generally by no 
means so within, for, being well whitewashed 
there, they look clean, and are at all times 
cool. The walls are built of large bricks of mud, called adobes, about 
two feet long by one foot wide, and four inches thick ; and the mud, 
being mixed with fine-cut straw, and dried in the sun, holds very 
well together if carefully handled. These are built up with mud for 
mortar, and very often plastered with the same substance, both 
inside and out, but as the tools used are only a spade and wooden 
trowel, the walls are not generally very smooth. On the top of these 
walls are laid young trees, for rafters, upon which are again laid 
small sticks, placed close together, and over all a coat of mud from 
six to eight inches in thickness. This roof, of course, is quite flat, 
but the walls being built at least a foot higher than the roof, on all 
sides, with holes here and there to let the water escape, they pre- 
vent the earth from washing off, and as the grass soon grows upon 
this roof, it becomes impervious to the water. The floor is nothing 
but the bare earth, trodden down hard, and I can say from experi- 
ence, that it makes the hardest of beds, rock not even excepted ! 
The walls and ceiling are whitewashed with a solution of bone-lime, 
made quite thick, and laid on by means of a buckskin. The houses 
are often whitewashed both externally and internally, and the lime, 
being of a brilliant white, renders the room very light, although, per- 
haps, the only opening is at the door, or a little grated window about 
a foot square, no window-glass being used. The houses of the 
poorer classes only consist of one room, with generally a partition 
wall as high as the waist, running almost across it; and around the 
walls are built broad seats, upon which the blankets that compose 
the beds of the family are laid during the day. At night the chil 
dren use these benches as bedsteads, while the rest of the family, 
consisting probably of three generations, sleep promiscuously upon 
2M 52 





410 KEARNY ARRIVES AT TOMAE. 

the floor, in filthy sheep-skins and blankets. The better sort sleep on 
sacks of feathers, and in low trundle bedsteads, hewn with an axe 
from the rough wood. The children, from four years old downwards, 
go entirely naked ; the women are badly clothed, very dirty, ugly, 
and immodest ; and the men are the meanest, most contemptible set 
of swarthy thieves and liars to be found any where. The rich ones 
will cheat and swindle, and the poor sneakingly pilfer any thino-."* 

N the 2d of September, Gene- 
ral Kearny, having appointed 
George Bent to be civil go- 
vernor of New Mexico, 
started on a reconnoissance down the 
Rio Grande, with five hundred of 
Colonel Doniphan's regiment, one 
hundred and fifty artillery, and one 
hundred regulars. He came first to 
the village of San Domingo, which is 
inhabited by the Puebla Indians, and 
from which the town of Santa Fe is supplied with fruit. The In- 
dians favoured the party with a military reception, displaying great 
skill in their evolutions, and much pride in their dresses and trap- 
pings. They were well pleased with the change in the government, 
and treated General Kearny and his companions with hospitality. At 
Albuquerque they found the residence of ex-governor Armijo, whose 
wife still remained there. The priest's house was remarked as one 
of the best in the country, the priests generally being the wealthiest 
men in the country. 

Valentia was found to be a large and handsome town, supported 
by its vineyards and fruit trees. The better class of the population was 
composed of Indians, many of whom came to the camp with fruit, 
which they sold to the penniless soldiers, taking as pay the metal 
buttons from the military coats, rating their value at twelve and a 
half cents each. General Kearny arrived at Tomae on the eve of a 
religious fete, in which the figure of the Virgin Mary was carried 
about the streets in a procession, General Kearny and his officers 
walking in it with lighted candles in their hands. The day closed 
with fireworks and fandangos. 

During the latter part of September, a detachment of fifty men 
marched northward, under Captain Fischer, to bring in some of the 
Apache Indians, who had been committing depredations on the 
Mexicans. The character of this tribe may be inferred from their 

* Campaign in New Mexico, by Frank S. Edwards. 



ERECTION OF FORT MARCY. 



411 




Encampment near Valentia. 



treatment of Armijo. Several of them came to Santa Fe to make a 
treaty with him, and when it was concluded they left the town, stop- 
ping long enough in the outskirts to murder several herdsmen and 
carry off a large quantity of cattle. They found that they had now 
to deal with a very different kind of men from the Mexicans, and 
they changed their tactics accordingly. A couple of Indians could 
make twenty armed Mexicans fly at any time, and they were equally 
pleased and alarmed to see Captain Fischer marching, with fifty men, 
to subdue them, however numerous they might be. Their chiefs 
came to him, and accompanied him back to Santa Fe, where they 
made a treaty of peace. 

A fort had been commenced within six hundred yards of the town, 
which, under the superintendence of Lieutenants Emory, Gilmer, and 
Peck, became an imposing structure, and was named, in honour of 
the secretary of war, Fort Marcy. Arrangements were made for 
the civil government of the country ; civil officers were appointed, 
and a code of laws promulgated, for which General Kearny acknow- 
ledges his indebtedness to Colonel Doniphan, who was assisted in 
their preparation by a private in his regiment, the Hon. Willard P. 
Hall. 

On the 25th of September, having received information of the cer- 
tain approach of the Missouri regiment, under Colonel Price, and the 
Mormons, General Kearny departed from Santa Fe to march over 
a thousand miles of country, much of which was a desert, to Cali- 
fornia. He had made the following distribution of his forces. The 
United States dragoons, under Major Sumner, Captain Hudson's com- 



412 



DISTRIBUTION OF FORCES. 




Major Sumner. 



pany, and the Mormon battalion, were to accompany him to Cali- 
fornia. Major Clark's St. Louis artillery companies, and the two 
companies of infantry under Captains Angney and Murphy, were to 
remain at Santa Fe. Colonel Doniphan's regiment was to take post 
at Tomae, a station forty miles south of Albuquerque, until the arrival 
of Colonel Price, when they were to be relieved at Tomae by two 
companies of Price's regiment, and Colonel Doniphan was to march 
to Chihuahua and report to General Wool, who was supposed to be 
by this time in possession of that city. 

Soon after leaving Santa Fe, General Kearny met an express bring- 
ing to Washington an account of the exploits of Colonel Fremont in 
California, which induced the general to send back nearly half of 
his men, some of whom were kept at Albuquerque, and the remainder 
sent to Fort Leavenworth. While General Kearny was marching 
forward towards California, the little army left in possession of Santa 
Fe were not unoccupied. The drill and parade filled up the long 
intervals of inaction ; and the soldiers were not without amusement. 



OPERATIONS OF DONIPHAN. 



413 




HE army had its theatre. In No- 
vember a dramatic society was 
started by some of the officers 
of Major Clark's battalion at 
Santa Fe. Governor Bent sup- 
plied them with a fandango 
room ; machinery, scenery, and 
a wardrobe, were manufactured 
with Yankee ingenuity, and the 
performances commenced with 
Pizarro and Bombastes Furioso. 
Some of the boyish heroes enact- 
ed the female characters quite 
naturally ; and, though the Mex- 
ican women smoked during the 
whole play, and always laughed 
when they should have cried, 
the audiences were large and 
fashionable. 

Towards the end of November, Colonel D. D. Mitchell was 
despatched by Colonel Price from Santa Fe, with ninety-five picked 
men, to co-operate with Colonel Doniphan in opening a communica- 
tion with Chihuahua and General Wool. This body found Colonel 
Doniphan at Valverde, with only eighty men under his command. 
The whole of his force had been engaged, in separate divisions, in a 
campaign against the Navajos Indians; and, though acting in the 
middle of winter, without any of the necessaries of a winter cam- 
paign, he was entirely successful. 

One of his battalions was in advance, under Major Gilpin, and 
the colonel himself determined to advance with Mitchell's escort, 
and allow his scattered command to overtake him on the road. He 
marched along the Rio Grande to Fray Christobal, where he halted 
one day, to collect all his force, and cook two days' provisions pre- 
paratory to crossing the desert of La Jornada del Muerto, the Day's 
Journey of Death. This was a long, dry extent of road, about sixty 
miles in length, by Colonel Doniphan's track, which had obtained its 
name from the circumstance of a Mexican having attempted to cross 
it in .a day, without food or water, and perished in consequence. 
The Mexicans used the term Jornada in estimating distances ; thus, 
when a route was said to be so many jornadas in length, it was meant 
that to encamp at water each night, it would take so many days to 
march over it. The soldiers, however, never took the pains to observe 
the meaning of the term, and in all the accounts given of this famous 
2m2 



414 Doniphan's march. 





Encampment at Fray Christobal. 

expedition by the volunteers, we find the term always applied to a 
long dry extent of road without water. The army marched on until 
midnight of the first day, and resumed the road at daybreak in the 
morning. They noticed with surprise, that though there was little 
rain and no water, the grass here was finer and better than they had 
ever seen elsewhere. Here, too, they first met with a species of 
palm, the root of which the Mexicans used as a substitute for soap, 
whence the soldiers called it soap-weed. This is an exceedingly 
useful plant to the people, who use its leaves for the manufacture of 
hats, ropes, and sacks, it being, when dressed, not unlike the coarser 
qualities of manilla hemp. The leaves are two feet and a half in 
length, armed at the end with a long thorn, and of a dark green 
colour. They fall to the ground as the foliage decays, and burn 
rapidly, a circumstance which gave much comfort to the soldiers 
during the cold nights spent on the march. The trunk of the tree 
does not grow more than six feet high, and is surmounted at the end 
by a head of stiff leaves. The soap-weeds had one quality which 
proved exceedingly provoking to the volunteers. They assumed in 
the twilight the most deceptive forms, causing the sentinel to chal- 
lenge them as men, with the cry of "who goes there," and leading 
the poor fellows on a hunt for an hour in the gray of the morning, by 
assuming, at a little distance, the exact form of his missing horse or 
mule. 

The army, on the second night, overtook a large party of traders, 
with three hundred conestoga wagons laden with goods. They were 
expecting an attack from a Mexican robber priest, Ortiz, and were 



doniphan's camp surprised. 415 




The Traders. 

in much alarm, which Colonel Doniphan's arrival ended. The bat- 
talion of Major Gilpin was found near the town of Dona Ana, having 
reached there by a slightly different road. He gave his opinion that 
the army would have some difficulty in entering the town of El Paso, 
but the soldiers thought the news too good to be true, and charged 
him with being too sanguine. The array moved on towards the town. 
On the night of the 24th of December, the army had a repast from a 
number of sheep, which, though healthy and well grown, weighed 
seventeen pounds on an average. The spirits of the volunteers were 
at all times exuberant, and gave them great support under the diffi- 
culties of their undertaking. On this occasion, one mess put a 
lighted candle into the carcass of their sheep before cooking it, and 
proved that it made a capital lantern. They complained of their 
quartermaster for not having reserved such fine mutton to help out 
their dinner on the morrow, Christmas day. 

The march was resumed on Christmas day, and pursued for some 
time, when the army encamped on the road. The troops all dispersed, 
having unsaddled their animals, to carry wood and water into camp, 
when an immense cloud of dust was observed at a distance by 
several from different points, and they began to hurry into the camp 
to prepare for an emergency. They were almost too late. The 
enemy had taken the camp by surprise. There were not a hun- 
dred and fifty men there when they came up, and the rear guard 
was six miles behind, with the wagon train spread along the 
road. This was in charge of Quartermaster-Sergeant Edwards, 
who hastened them up, and began to corraal them. The wagons 
containing the ammunition of Colonel Doniphan's regiment were 
behind, but fortunately, one of those brought by Colonel Mitchell, 



416 



DONIPHAN S CAMP SURPRISED. 




from Santa Fe, was in front, and Mr. Edwards began to get 
out its contents, the wagons putting themselves into form as they 
came up. The rapid advance of the enemy allowed no time for sad- 
dling horses, so the troops drew up across the road on foot, in a single 
line, determined to gain a victory as infantry. The enemy drew up 
at the top of a slight rise in the ground, in good order, with their 
cavalry on the right, and a small howitzer in the centre. Their left 
flank and body was composed of infantry. They made a gay ap- 
pearance, particularly the cavalry. These were clad in bright scar 



BATTLE OF BRACITO. 417 

let coats, with bell buttons and white belts, carrying sabres and 
carbines, and long lances, with red and green pennons. Their 
polished arms gave them quite a shining appearance, to which their 
brass helmets, with large black plumes, added not a little. Their 
whole force formed quite a contrast to the " rough, ready, and ragged" 
group opposed to them. 

When the Mexicans halted, a lieutenant came forward from their 
ranks, waving a black flag, with a skull and cross-bones worked 
upon it. The American interpreter, Thomas Caldwell, advanced to 
meet him. The lieutentant demanded that the American commander 
should come into his camp and have a parley. Mr. Caldwell replied, 
"If your general wants to see our commander let him come here." 
" We shall break your ranks, then, and take him there," was the 
retort of the Mexican. "Come and take him," said Mr. Caldwell ; 
and the Mexican officer rode back, exclaiming, " a curse on you. 
Prepare for a charge. We give no quarter, and ask none." 

When he reached his lines, they opened their fire, advancing 
steadily. The charge was so handsomely made as to win the admi- 
ration of the volunteers, who looked on at their approach, and while 
they fired two volleys. The shot from their guns passed over the 
heads of the troops, but seriously incommoded Mr. Edwards's party 
at the wagons in the rear. They poured in their third fire at close 
pistol-shot, and wounded several of the Americans, who, as the 
smoke of the discharge lifted sufficiently to make a sure aim, poured 
in two volleys from their rifles. At this moment, the Mexican dra- 
goons were charging on the left of the line, but the heavy shower of 
balls turned them, and they wheeled, turned the flank and came 
down upon the wagon train. Mr. Edwards had about fifteen men 
under his command here, and seeing the enemy advancing, he or- 
dered the party to shelter themselves behind the wagons, until the 
red coats were within ten yards, when each stepped out and gave 
them the contents of his piece. They fell back over a rising piece 
of ground, hotly pursued by fifteen mounted Americans. 

Just at the time of delivering the second volley, a part of the 
Howard, company headed by Lieutenant Wright, took it into their heads 
to break the line, ran up to the Mexican cannon in front of them, and 
forcibly secured and dragged it into their own ranks. This act, daring 
and desperate, added to the perplexity of the Mexicans, who said 
they could not understand such a people. When their first fire had 
been given they saw the right wing of the Americans kneel down on 
the ground, and supposed them to have been swept away by their 
shot, and it was an incomprehensible mystery to them to find them 
sustain three volleys without returning one, and, when they were all 

53 



418 



BATTLE OF BRACITO. 




Battle of Bracito. 



shot down, to see fresh enemies jump up out of the grass. It was 
difficult to get more than two shots at them, though a few of the most 
fortunate had five or six. The Mexicans lost about two hundred men 
in killed and wounded, and left their arms, provisions, and stores, on 
the field of battle. They numbered about twelve hundred in all. 
Colonel Doniphan had but five hundred with him, and these were 
not all engaged. He had seven men wounded, but none killed. 
The Mexican women were gloriously represented in this fight. Two 
of them were engaged in the battle, serving at the cannon. One of 
them unfortunately was shot in the forehead, and the other, finding 
the battle lost, bravely bore her dying companion off the field. 

The dragoons, who had behaved so gallantly, met with a sad fate. 
The little squadron of American horse chased them into the moun- 
tains, where a hostile band of Navajos Indians, who had been watch- 
ing the struggle in their concealment, set on them, and slew almost 
the whole of them for the sake of their bright uniforms and arms. 
Such was the first battle fought by the " Army of the West," called 
the battle of Bracito, from the bend of the river near which it was 
fought, which bears this name. 

It is remarkable on many accounts, besides that of being the 
earliest in the campaign. It was fought under every disadvantage for 
our countrymen. The surprise, the freshness of the troops, the scattered 
state of the force, the exposure of the train, were all against them. 



REINFORCEMENT FOR DONIPHAN. 



419 




L PASO, near which the bat- 
tle of Bracito was fought, is 
a town of some three thou- 
sand inhabitants, on the 
high road from New Mexico 
to Chihuahua. No attempt 
was made to defend it by 
the dispirited Mexicans, 
and Colonel Doniphan en- 
tered it on the 27th of De- 
cember. He determined to 
wait here for the arrival of 
a reinforcement from Santa 
Fe. He had sent an express 
thither some time previously 
to Major Clarke, requesting 
that officer to come and join him, if possible, and at all events to 
send him Captain Weightman, with the battery, and thirty or forty 
men. Captain Weightman immediately started with six pieces of 
artillery, forty-five Laclede rangers, and sixty- five men of his own 
country, and made a forced march of three hundred and fifty miles 
in the dead of winter, with an endurance and perseverance almost 
unequalled in history. He was passed on the road by Major Clark, 
who hurried on to El Paso, and found that the Americans were ex- 
pecting a night attack from the enemy [January 25.] He imme- 
diately sent back an express with twenty-eight fresh mules and infor- 
mation of the expected battle. Captain Weightman met the express, 
just as he was emerging from the fatiguing march over the Jornada 
del Muerto. He pushed forward twenty-two miles to Dona Ana, 
and there informed his command of the prospect of a fight, and of 
his intention to leave there all his baggage, and march at once with 
arms, ammunition, and as much food as they could carry ready 
cooked. He started at midnight on the 30th of January, and moved 
with such celerity as to reach El Paso at one o'clock in the next 
night, making a distance of sixty-one miles in one day, although the 
weather was so cold that they had to make fires every four or fivt 
miles, at which the men would stop a few at a time, to warm them- 
selves, and then hurry onward after the battery. Their sufferings 
on the march were not more remarkable than their chivalric devo- 
tion. Between Santa Fe and El Paso, they were obliged to ford the 
Rio Grande three times. On one occasion, the river was frozen over 
except in the middle, where masses of floating ice were whirled 
along by the current. The guns, caissons, and baggage were in grea 



420 



CAPTURE OF ORTIZ. 



danger of being lost by the ice and by quicksands. To save the 
artillery it became necessary to order a large detachment into the 
deep and chilling waters, and the orderlies produced their books and 
were about to name the men who should perform this duty, when a 
general shout burst forth from the gallant hearted men, and they 
rushed in a mass to perform the perilous duty, with the cry, " we 
are volunteers."* 

The applause of their comrades and Colonel Doniphan was libe- 
rally bestowed, and, with the approval of their own consciences, must 
have compensated them for their disappointment, when they dis- 
covered that they had been the victims of a false alarm. 

UMOURS were brought while the troops 
were at El Paso, of preparations for resist- 
ance at Carrizal, a fortified place between 
them and Chihuahua. They learned that 
regular messengers were sent from El Paso 
to that place, and suspecting a priest 
named Ortiz, they laid a trap for him, 
which partially failed through the impa- 
tience of the officer in charge. He found 
a horse at the priest's house ready saddled 
and bridled, and, instead of waiting until 
his rider should have started, and then seized him, to ascertain what 
he carried, the officer surrounded the house, and politely knocked 
at the door. The priest and two gentlemen were brought to the 
colonel's quarters, and Ortiz was upbraided with treachery. He re- 
marked that he did not consider the delivery of his country from a 
foreign enemy, by any means whatever, treachery. He proclaimed 
his enmity to Americans, but announced that his efforts to free the 
country of them would be open ones, and that he would not attempt 
to incite an insurrection because he knew it would be worse than 
useless. 

Colonel Doniphan admired his sentiments, but informed him that 
he would take care to prevent him from carrying them into effect, by 
keeping a strict watch over him. Ortiz had been at Bracito, and the 
colonel pithily concluded his address by remarking, that as he had 
seen how his countrymen had fought on ground of their own select- 
ing, he would take him along southward, that he might have an op- 
portunity of comparing it with their deeds when fighting was to be 
done on ground of the colonel's choosing. The holy father accord- 
ingly accompanied the expedition to Chihuahua.f 

* Conquest of California and New Mexico, by J. M. Cutts, Esq. 
t Edwards's Campaign. 




BENTON S SPEECH. 



421 




HE arrival of Major 
Clark and Captain 
Weightman with their 
followers, increased 
the number of the 
command to a thou- 
sand men, whose ap- 
pearance on parade 
was most ludicrous, 
shoes being a luxury, 
hats well ventilated, 
no two pair of panta- 
loons alike, and the 
only whole ones being 
those of buckskin, 
which a few lucky 
soldiers had obtained 
in the campaign 
against the Navajos Indians. Few owned a jacket, and the shirts 
were frequently sadly out of repair. On the 11th of February, how- 
ever, the army set out on the road for Chihuahua. After marching a 
hundred and forty-five miles, a mail from Santa Fe was received, and 
they learned that General Wool had changed his route, and was noi 
at Chihuahua, but Colonel Doniphan received no despatches, and he 
called a council of war to decide upon their further movements. It 
was decided to proceed. In allusion to this determination, Colonel 
Benton made the following remarks, in his speech to the returning 
volunteers. 

" I have said that you made your long expedition without govern- 
ment orders, and so, indeed, you did. You received no orders from 
your government, but without knowing it, you were fulfilling its 
orders — orders which never reached you. Happy the soldier who 
executes the command of his government ; happier still he who an- 
ticipates command, and does what is wanted before he is bid. This 
is your case. You did the right thing at the right time, and what the 
government intended you to do, and without knowing its intention. 
The facts are these : Early in the month of November last, the presi- 
dent asked my opinion on the manner of conducting the war. I sub- 
mitted a plan to him, which, in addition to other things, required all 
the disposable troops in New Mexico, and all the Americans in that 
quarter who could be engaged for a dashing expedition, to move 
down through Chihuahua and the state of Durango, and, if necessary, 
to Zacatecas, and get into communication with General Taylor's right 
2N 



422 



BENTONS SPEECH. 




Colonel Benton. 



as early as possible in the month of March. In fact, the disposable 
Missourians in New Mexico, were to be one of three columns destined 
for a combined movement on the city of Mexico, all to be on the 
table-land, and ready for movement in the month of March. The 
president approved the plan, and the Missourians being most distant, 
orders were despatched to New Mexico, to put them in motion. Mr. 
Solomon Sublette carried the order, and delivered it to the command- 
ing officer at Santa Fe, Colonel Price, on the 23d day of February — 
just five days before you fought the marvellous battle of Sacramento. 
" I well remember what passed between the president and myself, 
at the time he resolved to give this order. It awakened his solici- 
tude for your safety. It was to send a small body of men a great 
distance into the heart of a hostile country, and upon the contingency 
of uniting in a combined movement, the means for which had not yet 
been obtained from Congress. The president made it a question, 
and very properly, whether it was safe or prudent to start the small 
Missouri column before the movement of the left and of the centre 
was assured. I answered, that my own rule in public affairs was to 
do what I thought was right, and leave it to others to do what they 
thought was right ; and that I believed it the proper course for him 
to follow on the present occasion. On this view he acted He gave 




ROUT OF MEXICAN ADVANCE GUARD. 423 

the order to go, without waiting to see whether Congress would fur- 
nish the means of executing the combined plan ; and, for his conso- 
lation, I undertook to guarantee your safety. Let the worst come to 
the worst, I promised him that you would take care of yourselves. 
Though the other parts of the plan should fail — though you should 
become far involved in the advance, and deeply compromised in the 
enemy's country, and without support — still I relied on your courage, 
skill, and enterprise to extricate yourselves from every danger — to 
make daylight through all the Mexicans that should stand before you — 
cut your way out — and make good your retreat to Taylor's camp." 
HE road they traversed for the ensuing ten days 
was more dreary and desolate than any they had 
hitherto marched over, excepting the Jornada 
del Muerto. Scarcely had they succeeded in 
getting the trains through one of the long dry 
tracts of country when another was entered. 
Fire on the grass behind them, twice made them 
harness up and run for their lives, after the close 
of a fatiguing march. The artillery was only 
saved by being plunged into a shallow salt lake, 
while the men formed a line across the country, at an advantageous 
point, and checked the fire by beating it out with the branches of 
trees in their hands. They met no resistance at Carrizal, but every 
thing indicated that the enemy would be met in force in a short time, 
and the feverish state of alarm added to their difficulties. Once or 
twice they were obliged to prepare suddenly for action on false 
alarms, and the terrible marches over the Jornada were made still 
more discouraging, by the rumours that they would be attacked at 
its extremity, when they and their animals should be exhausted by 
thirst. 

On the 27th day of February, it became conclusive that a battle 
would be fought on the following day. Two traders had chased a 
Mexican so hard as to force him to dismount and seek safety on foot. 
An elegantly caparisoned horse, which he had ridden, was brought 
into camp. The American picket-guard, going out after dark to 
take up their position, had met the advance guard of the foe, and 
though only half as numerous, they drove them back. At sunrise 
on the 28th of February, the army took up the line of march, and 
formed the whole train, consisting of three hundred and fifteen heavy 
traders' wagons, and our commissary and company wagons, into 
four columns, thus shortening the length of the line, and making it 
more easily protected. The artillery and all the troops, except two 
hundred cavalry proper, were placed in the intervals between the 



424 



MEXICAN POSITION. 




columns of wagons, thus concealing the force and its position, by 
masking it with the cavalry. When within three miles, the position 
of the enemy was ascertained by a reconnoissance. 

HE able and gallant Major Clark, who 
made the examination of the enemy's 
position, reported "that his intrench- 
ments and redoubts occupied the 
brow of an elevation extending across 
the ridge between the Arroyo Seco 
and that of Sacramento — both of 
which at this point .cross the valley 
from the elevated ridge of mountains 
in the rear of the village of Torreon, 
known by the name of Sierra de Vic- 
toriano, that of Nombre de Dios on the east, and through which runs 
the Rio del Nombre de Dios. This valley is about four miles in 
width, and intrenched by the enemy entirely across, from mountain 
to mountain, the road to the city of Chihuahua running directly 
through its centre, and of necessity, passing near to and crossing 
the Rio Sacramento, at the Rancho Sacramento, a strongly built and 
fortified house, with adjoining corraals, and other inclosures, belong- 
ing to Angel Trias, the governor of Chihuahua. From observation, 
it was ascertained that the enemy had occupied the site between these 
hills, and that the batteries upon them were supported by infantry — 
his cavalry being in advanced positions formed into three columns 
between the Arroyo Seco and our advance. During these observa- 
tions, the enemy's advance guard discovering my party, approached 
rapidly, with the evident intention of intercepting it, but being met 
by that of our troops, which I had sent forward, it as rapidly retreated. 
At this time also, the three columns of the enemy's cavalry recrossed 
the Arroyo Seco, and retired behind their intrenchments. I then 
approached within six hundred yards of the most advanced redoubt, 
from which point the enemy's formation was plainly discernible. 
The intrenchments consisted of a line with intervals composed of 
circular redoubts, from three to five hundred yards interval, with in- 
trenchments between each, covering batteries partly masked by 
cavalry. The redoubt nearest to my position contained two pieces 
of cannon, supported by several hundred infantry. 

" The enemy's right and left were strong positions ; the Cerro 
Frijoles on his right, and having high precipitous sides, with a re- 
doubt commanding the surrounding country, and the pass leading 
towards Chihuahua, through the Arroyo Seco. The Cerro Sacra- 
mento on his left, consisting of a pile of immense volcanic rocks 



BATTLE OF SACRAMENTO. 



425 



I 



surmounted by a battery, commanded the main road to Chihuahua, 
leading directly in front of the enemy's intrenchments ; crossing the 
Rio Sacramento at the rancho, directly under its fire, and also com- 
manding the road from Torreon, immediately in its rear ; the cross- 
ing of the main road over the Arroyo Seco, at the point from which 
my reconnoissance was made, laid directly under the fire of the bat- 
teries on the enemy's right, which rendered it necessary to ascertain 
the practicability of a route more distant from the enemy's intrench- 
ments. The passage was found to be practicable, with some little 
labour ; and a point selected as the best for the passage of the artil- 
lery and wagons, and merchants' trains." 

r\n/N»]HE only chance of 
111 VI fighting them on 
at all even ground, 
consisted in get- 
ting possession of 
the table-land be- 
tween the Seco and 
Sacramento. Ma- 
jor Clark advanced 
to within fifteen 
hundred yards of 
the enemy's most 
advanced position, 
then suddenly di- 
verged to the right, 
crossed the Arroyo 
Seco without reach of the enemy's fire, and rapidly advanced to the 
table-land. The Americans displayed the utmost enthusiasm. The 
dense mass of the enemy, and his almost impregnable position, only 
made them the more eager for the conflict, and their conversation 
and bearing were such as might have been expected from men going 
to a fandango rather than into such an unequal fight. But they 
fought under the invincible banner of the stars and stripes, and their 
assurance of victory was rendered doubly sure by a joyful omen. 

It was certainly one of the most perilous attempts made in the 
whole course of the war, this mere handful of men deliberately ad- 
vancing to storm the intrenched position of a force so greatly supe- 
rior, a force, too, which was moved to the encounter by every 
motive which ordinarily stimulates men to do and dare on the field 
of battle. The Mexicans were about to fight for their altars and 
their homes, almost in the presence of their wives and children. The 
Americans were to do battle for the honour of their flag. 
2n2 54 





426 BATTLE OF SACRAMENTO. 

AS they gained the table-land an Amen 
can eagle was seen sailing slowly and 
majestically over their heads. The 
whole army paused for a moment or 
two to gaze at him, and then turned 
again towards the foe. He had ad- 
vanced from his intrenehments to pre- 
vent the Americans from seizing upon 
the heights, but he miscalculated the 
time of their movements, and they 
had succeeded in forming before his cavalry reached their posi- 
tion. The battery occupied the centre ; on the right and left of it 
were two companies of cavalry, one of them Colonel Mitchell's 
escort ; and behind, dismounted and acting as infantry, stood the 
rest of the forces. The enemy's artillery opened upon them as they 
were forming. When their cavalry had advanced within nine hun- 
dred yards of the American line, Captain Weightman opened a ter- 
rible fire upon them, working his pieces with great rapidity, and 
mowing lanes through their solid columns. Major Clark and his 
officers stood in the centre of the battery. Farther to the right, 
Colonel Doniphan was sitting on his charger, whittling a piece of 
wood, one leg crossed over the saddle, and his eye dancing with joy 
at the spirit of his little band. And thus they remained for half an 
hour, dodging the cannon balls which they could see coming, while 
the smaller balls fell among them, a copper hail, almost disregarded. 
Lieutenant Dorn had his horse's head carried away, and a German 
volunteer rolled off his horse, exclaiming that he was killed. He had 
received a wound in the leg, but on examining its extent, he coolly 
tied it up tightly with his handkerchief, and was helped into the 
saddle again. As yet no serious damage was done to the men, 
though several animals were slain or disabled. The fire of Captain 
Weightman's pieces, however, had been more effective. One of the 
enemy's guns had been dismounted, and his cavalry dispersed, and 
he was forced to retire again behind his intrenehments. 

The firing now ceased for a time, the enemy removing his cannon 
and wounded, while the Americans changed their position to more 
advantageous ground. This being done, the gallant colonel yielded 
to the solicitations of his men, and a charge was ordered. Colonel 
Mitchell, mounted on his white charger, waved them on with his 
sabre ; Captain Read followed, with his company ; Major Owens, a 
trader, spurred into the foremost rank, and Captain Weightman thun- 
dered after them with his howitzers, in full gallop. Colonel Doni- 
phan covered his face with his hands as they started, and groaned 



BATTLE OF SACRAMENTO. 



427 




Battle of Sacramento. 



out, " My God ! they're gone! the boys will all be killed !" Then 
recovering himself, he struck his spurs into his horse, and dashed 
after them. Captain Weightman unlimbered within fifty yards of 
the enemy's intrenchments, and poured a destructive fire of canister 
into his ranks, then passed through it in the face of the enemy, and 
within a few feet of the ditches, then threw his fire to the right and 
left, raking the whole line of the enemy's position. Just at the most 
critical moment, a tipsy officer, whose potations had not added to 
his valour, stuttered out a command to halt, and a momentary inde- 
cision was produced, but one of the sutlers, a gallant fellow, named 
Pomeroy, exclaimed, " for God's sake, advance !" and the line dashed 
forward again. The men who had followed the cavalry in the charge, 
now poured over the breastworks and forced the enemy out. 

Under a heavy fire of artillery and small arms, Major Gilpin 
charged upon the enemy's centre, and forced him from his intrench 
ments. The American battery opened upon the enemy's extreme 
right, from which a heavy fire had been kept up upon the line and a 
wagon train. Two of the enemy's guns there were soon dismounted, 
that battery silenced, and the enemy dislodged from the redoubt on 



428 BATTLE OF SACRAMENTO. 

the Cerro Frijoles. A body of lancers were seen forming for the 
purpose of out-flanking the American left, and attacking the merchant 
train. Major Clark opened on them a very destructive fire of grape 
and small shot, and soon cleared the field of them. 

Having vacated his intrenchments, and deserted his guns, the enemy 
was hotly pursued towards the mountains, beyond Cerro Frijoles, and 
down Arroyo Seco de Sacramento, by both wings of the army, under 
Colonel Mitchell, Colonel Jackson, Major Gilpin, and Captain Weight- 
man, with the howitzers. These were repeatedly fired with great effect. 
At one time the gallant Weightman, pressing on in front, found that 
his guns were not following. He rode back to where, through some 
misunderstanding, they had stopped, and shouted, " On with that 
battery. If I knew who had halted you, I'd cut him down." He 
had no further reason to complain of its movements. Meanwhile the 
enemy's battery on the Cerro Sacramento had been strengthened by 
a number of pieces taken from the other intrenchments. To cover 
the flight of their troops from the intrenched camp, they opened a 
very heavy fire upon the pursuing forces and the wagons in the rear. 
Without waiting for orders, Major Clark occupied the nearest of the 
enemy's intrenchments, distant about twelve hundred yards ; and, not- 
withstanding that the elevated position of the Mexicans gave them the 
advantage of a plunging fire into the intrenchments, and the greater 
range of their guns, the first cannon fired by the Americans dis- 
mounted one of the enemy's pieces, and the others were successively 
silenced. They commenced a precipitate retreat, under the fire of 
Major Clark's guns, which only ceased when Colonel Mitchell was 
seen to scale the hill, followed by the indefatigable Weightman with 
his howitzers, and secure the last position of the Mexicans. ■ The 
gallant colonel came galloping down from the heights on his splendid 
white charger, waving, as a proud token of his successful prowess, 
the standard of the beaten enemy. The victors were about to con- 
tinue the pursuit, when they were recalled to the camp by Colonel 
Doniphan. The fight lasted three hours, during the whole of which, 
says Major Clark, every officer and man did his duty with cheerful- 
ness, coolness, and precision, as is shown by the admirable effect 
produced by their fire, the great accuracy of their aim, their expedi- 
tion and ingenuity in supplying deficiencies in the field during the 
action, and the prompt management of their pieces, rendered still 
more remarkable from the fact, that, during the fight, he had less 
than two-thirds the number of cannoneers generally required for the 
service of light artillery, and but four of the twelve artillery carriages 
belonging to the battery harnessed with horses ; the other eight being 
drawn by mules. 



RESULT OF THE BATTLE. 



429 




Colonel Mitchell bearing off the Mexican Standard. 

As long as the enemy continued to occupy his position, the Ame- 
rican artillery was a constant point of attack, yet notwithstanding the. 
great quantity of balls poured upon it, not a man attached to it was 
hurt, nor a gun struck, excepting in one instance, when a ball struck 
the tire of a wheel and glanced off without injuring it. Colonel Doni- 
phan bestowed great praise on his whole force, but especially upon 
the artillery. " Much has been said, and justly," he remarks, "of 
the gallantry of our artillery unlimbering within two hundred and 
fifty yards of the enemy at Palo Alto ; but how much more daring 
was the charge of Captain Weightman, when he unlimbered within 
fifty yards of the redoubts of the enemy." 

The Mexicans lost their whole park of artillery, consisting of ten 
pieces, two nine, two eight, four six, and two four-pounders, and 
six culverins, or rampart pieces, throwing a pound of lead at a shot. 
They had three hundred killed, as many wounded, many of whom 
afterwards died, and forty prisoners. They left behind them several 
Joads of ammunition, and nine wagon loads or thirteen thousand 
pounds of hard bread, four loads of dried meat, a large quantity of 
ifcveetened flour, seven hundred thousand cigaritos, seven thousand 
head of cattle, and ten acres of sheep.* 



* Edwards's Campaign. 




430 REMARKS ON THE BATTLE. 

HE black flag which had been shown them at 
Bracito, was found on the field, and brought 
home to Missouri, by Major Clark. Several 
national and regimental colours were also 
taken, and several bundles of rope cut into 
convenient pieces, called lariats, to tie the 
Americans with, when they should have 
been conquered. What amused the soldiers 
more, was an attempted improvement upon 
General Jackson's defence at New Orleans. 
This production of Mexican ingenuity con- 
sisted in great quantities of small bags, 
which a Mexican officer said were to have been filled with cotton, 
and hung round the soldiers' necks as armour. However effective 
this might have proved against balls, it would have afforded little 
safety from the Missourians, who violated all rules in their fighting. 
Private Richardson relates an anecdote, in his Journal, of one of his 
comrades in this battle, who slew one Mexican with the contents of 
his rifle, and was beset by another armed with a lance, before he 
had time to reload. Not desiring to be spitted, the volunteer resorted 
to natural means of defence. He picked up a great stone, threw 
it with such force as to knock his opponent down, and then beat 
out his brains with the butt of his rifle. 

The Americans seem to have been under the special protection of 
Providence. Notwithstanding the fierceness of the battle, its dura- 
tion, and the hand to hand nature of the conflict, they had but one 
man killed, one mortally wounded, and seven others who received 
bad wounds, but lost no limbs. Others received slight scratches and 
contusions, but were not at all disabled, and not reported. Colonel 
Doniphan's force numbered nine hundred and twenty-four men, one 
hundred of whom were engaged in holding horses and driving teams. 
Colonel Doniphan makes the force of the enemy to be twelve hun- 
dred cavalry, three hundred artillery, and fourteen hundred and 
twenty rancheros ; but Mr. Edwards says that he saw their adjutant- 
general's book, which showed their force to be four thousand two 
hundred men. Besides numbers, they had the advantage of posess- 
ing one major-general, five brigadiers, and an unlimited number of 
colonels and other officers. 

Such was the battle of Sacramento, as we find it given in the 
official report of Colonel Doniphan, the report of Major Clark to that 
officer, in the work of Mr. Edwards, (the most graphic and eloquent 
that has yet appeared upon the subject of the Mexican war,) and in 
the public prints. Perhaps the best idea of the way in which the 



DONIPHAN ENTERS CHIHUAHUA. 431 

victory was won may be obtained from Colonel Doniphan's account 
of it, as given to General Taylor afterwards, at the Walnut Springs. 
We quote Mr. Edwards : " By-the-by, colonel," said General Taylor, 
" every one is talking of your charge at Sacramento. I understand 
it was a brilliant affair. I wish you would give me a description of 
it, and of your manceuvers." "Manceuvers be hanged," returned 
Doniphan, and added, " I don't know any thing about the charge, 
except that my boys kept coming to me to let them charge, but I 
would not permit them ; for I was afraid they would be all cut to 
pieces. At last, I saw a favourable moment, and told them they 
might go — they were off like a shot — and that's all I know about it !" 
On the day after the battle, the army marched a short distance, 
and then halted to mend their ragged clothes, and fix up for a tri- 
umphal entry into Chihuahua, which they entered the next day. On 
the third of the month, the body of Major Owens, who was the only 
man killed in the battle, was interred with the honours of war. 

HIHUAHUA became, like Santa Fe, the starting 
point of a new expedition. To use the eloquent 
language of Mr. Benton, " General Taylor was 
some where — no one knew exactly where — but 
some seven or eight hundred miles towards the 
other side of Mexico. They had heard that he 
had been defeated — that Buena Vista had not 
been a good prospect to him. Like good Americans, they did not 
believe a word of it ; but, like good soldiers, they thought it best to 
go and see." A council was held first, and opinions were much 
divided as to the best course to pursue. At an adjourned meeting 
some days afterwards, some said they had been fvice disappointed 
in finding General Wool, at El Paso and at Chihuahua, and they 
thought they had gone quite far enough wool gathering. At all 
events, they had better remain for a while in their present comfort- 
able quarters, and repose from the fatigues of their, great expedition. 
Colonel Doniphan listened for a considerable time to their arguments, 
with some surprise and impatience, but at length gave his opinion, 
commencing by bringing his ponderous fist down on the table with 
considerable force. He was not long in delivering himself. He told 
them that they might possibly have founds/air reasons for staying, but 
he was " for going home to Sarah and the children." An express of 
twelve men was sent to General Taylor, to learn whether they should 
come and join him, or return home by the way of Texas. It returned 
in a short time with orders to march forward to join him by the way 
of Parras andSaltillo. On the 25th of April, the army left Chihuahua 
for Saltillo, where he reported to General Wool on the 22d of May. 




432 



SKIRMISH WITH INDIANS. 



imi>M 




HIS was a toilsome march, in which 
hardships had to be encountered 
scarcely less grievous than those they 
had already undergone. Its princi- 
pal event was an exploit performed 
by Captain Reid, and a handful of 
volunteers, at a rancho called El 
Paso. A band of some sixty Lipaus, 
a branch of the Camanche Indians, 
had been observed coming up the 
valley from San Luis Potosi, with 
plunder, many stolen horses, and 
captive Mexicans. An advanced 
guard, under Colonel Mitchell, was 
in Parras, twenty-five miles off, where they had been touched by 
learning the kindness of the Mexican women to the wounded soldiers 
of General Wool's column. They were applied to for aid, by the 
owner of El Paso, who felt confident that the Indians would come to 
attack his rancho. He offered each one that would go up and repel 
them, the use of a good pony for the purpose ; and fifteen of them 
volunteered. By hard riding, they got to the rancho, which was thirty 
miles off, a little before daylight. A few minutes afterwards, some 
American officers came riding along, intent upon reaching Parras in 
advance of the main body. Learning the anticipated amusement, 
they stopped to take a part in it, and thus the force of the defenders 
was increased in number to between twenty and thirty. The Indians 
were seen soon after daybreak, advancing up the valley. As they 
came towards the buildings, the Americans sallied out, and com- 
menced a fight, which lasted an hour. The Indians were very strong 
and muscular, and they kept a constant rocking motion in their sad- 
dles, which made it next to impossible to get a good aim at them. 
They were very expert with their arrows, however, and each party 
was compelled to fall back once or twice. They were not long in 
learning, from the number that were dropping from their saddles, 
that they were exposed to a far more deadly weapon than the Mexi- 
can carbine, and to marksmen who knew how to use their weapons. 
At last they retreated, carrying most of their dead and wounded 
away with them, but leaving some dead bodies behind, eighteen cap- 
tives, and three hundred and fifty stolen cattle. The astonished 
Mexicans were loud in testifying their gratitude. They were very 
much alarmed for the safety of Captain Reid, who had received two 
arrow wounds on the chin, and they examined with curiosity the 
numerous holes which the arrows had made in the soldiers' clothes. 



TESTIMONY TO CAPTAIN REID. 



433 



Nobody but the captain, however, received any injury worth noticing, 
and he doubtless considers himself amply repaid by one of the 
proudest trophies ever won by a Christian soldier in war. This is 
the letter of thanks from the prefect of the department of Parras, ad- 
dressed to Captain Reid on the 18th of May, 1847, and which has 
been translated by Mr. Benton as follows : 

" At the first notice that the barbarians, after killing many, and 
taking captives, were returning to their haunts, you generously and 
bravely offered, with fifteen of your subordinates, to fight them on 
their crossing by the pass of the Paso, executing this enterprise with 
celerty, address, and bravery, worthy of all eulogy, and worthy of 
the brilliant issue which all celebrate. You recovered many animals 
and much plundered property, and eighteen captives were restored 
to liberty and to social enjoyments, and their souls were overflowing 
with a lively sentiment of joy and gratitude, which all the inhabit 
ants of this town equally breathe, in favour of their generous de 
liverers, and their valiant chief. The half of the Indians killed in 
the combat, and those which fly wounded, do not calm the pain 
which all feel for the wound which your excellency received in de- 
fending Christians and civilized beings against the rage and brutality 
of savages. All desire the speedy re-establishment of your health ; 
and although they know that in your own noble soul will be found 
the best reward of your conduct, they desire also to address you the 
expression of their gratitude and high esteem. I am honoured in 
being the organ of public sentiment, and pray you to accept it, with 
the assurance of my most distinguished esteem. 
"God and liberty!" 

HE army was reviewed by Ge- 
neral Wool, at Saltillo, and 
many endeavours made to in- 
duce them to re-enlist, but the 
thought of " Sarah and the 
|jj children" was too strong to be overcome 
Hjj by any of the temptations of the gallant ge- 
gg neral, and they resumed the march home- 
ward. They reported to General Taylor at 
Monterey, on the 27th of May, and thence 
they marched to Matamoras, carrying with 
them their artillery, which General Taylor permitted them to take 
home as trophies, in consideration of " their gallantry and noble bear- 
ing." They made the march from Chihuahua to Matamoras, nine 
hundred miles, in forty-five days. They arrived at New Orleans 
about the middle of June, and at St. Louis on the 2d of July, where 
2 55 





434 



RETURN OF DONIPHANS REGIMENT. 



they received a most glorious welcome. Judge Bowlin received 
them on the part of the people, a banquet was spread for them, and 
their popular fellow- citizen, Colonel Benton, made a most thrilling 
speech to the assembled mass of soldiers and people. He recounted 
the events of their long and almost fabulous expedition, with a mi- 
nuteness and accuracy which astonished them. He traced their jour- 
ney of five thousand miles, from St. Louis and back again. He 
referred to the famous " Retreat of the Ten Thousand," and congratu- 
lated them that the march of the " One Thousand" exceeded that of 
the " Ten" by some two thousand miles. 

" You marched farther than the farthest, fought as well as the best, 
left order and quiet in your train, and cost less money than any. 
You arrive here to-day, absent one year, marching and fighting all the 
time, bringing trophies of cannon and standards from fields whose 
names where unknown to you before you set out, and only grieving that 
you could not have gone farther. Ten pieces of cannon rolled out of 
Chihuahua to arrest your march, now roll through the streets of St. 
Louis, to grace your triumphal return. Many standards, all pierced 
with bullets, while waving over the heads of the enemy, at the 
Sacramento, now wave at the head of your column. The black flag 
brought to the Bracito, to indicate the refusal of that quarter, which 
its bearers so soon needed and received, now takes its place among 
your nobler trophies, and hangs drooping in their presence. To 
crown the whole, to make public and private happiness go together, 
to spare the cypress where the laurel hangs in clusters ; this long and 
perilous march, with all its accidents of field and camp, presents an 
incredibly small list of comrades lost. Almost all return ! and the 
joy of families resounds intermingled with the applauses of the state." 

HE importance of tak- 
ing military possess- 
ion of California had 
early engaged the at- 
tention of the United 
States government. 
Commodore Sloat was 
directed, in a secret 
and confidential order 
from the navy depart- 
ment, in June, 1845, 
to possess himself of 
the port of San Fran 
cisco, and blockade 
or occupy such other ports as his force would allow, as soon as be 




ORDERS TO COMMODORE SLOAT. 



435 



learned, with certainty, of the existence of war between the United 
States and Mexico. On the 13th of May, 1846, the secretary of the 
navy wrote to him that the state of things before anticipated, then 
actually existed, and that he should refer to his former instructions, 
and carry into effect the orders therein communicated with energy 
and promptitude. Other communications were despatched, at short 
intervals, from the department to the distant commodore, the tenor 
of which was nearly the same as the first one, and may be expressed 
most clearly in the words of the secretary himself. " The object of 
the United States has reference to ultimate peace with Mexico ; and 
if, at that peace, the basis of the uti posseditis shall be established, 
the government expects, through your forces, to be found in actual 
possession of California." On the 13th of August an order was issued 
from the navy department, addressed to the senior officer in the com- 
mand on the Pacific, enforcing the execution of the instructions be- 
fore sent to Commodore Sloat, and giving especial directions for the 
maintenance of friendly relations with the people. The flag of the 
United States was to be raised, but the people were to be allowed as 
much liberty of self-government beneath it as would be consistent 
with the occupation of the country by the United States. All Ame- 
rican vessels and merchandise were to be allowed to come and go 
free of duty, and on foreign vessels and goods, reasonable duties 
were to be imposed and collected by the local authorities. 

HE naval commander was 
then informed that a mili- 
tary force had been di- 
rected by the secretary of 
war to proceed to the west- 
ern coast of California, for 
the purpose of co-operating 
with the navy, in taking 
possession of and holding 
the ports and positions be- 
fore designated, and co- 
operating otherwise in the 
war. A detachment of 
these troops, consisting of 
a company of artillery, 
under Captain Tompkins, had sailed in the United States ship Lex- 
ington, and Colonel Stevenson would soon sail from New York with 
a regiment of volunteers. General Kearny was expected to reach 
the coast by the overland route from Santa Fe, and the secretary en- 
joined the most cordial and effectual co-operation between the 





436 CAPTURE OF MONTEREY. 

officers of the two services, in taking possession of and holding the 
ports and positions of the enemy designated in the instructions to either 
or both branches ; and announced the intention of the government to 
hold any commander of either branch to a strict responsibility for 
any failure to preserve harmony and secure the objects proposed. 

P F all these despatches, that of the 13th 

of May, issued on the day when the 
war was formally recognized as exist- 
ing by Congress, was received on the 
19th of August, and the others at sub- 
sequent dates, though they did not 
come until after victory had crowned 
the arms of the gallant Americans, 
afforded the noble spirits who had 
achieved the conquest the satisfac- 
tion of knowing that they had only 
anticipated the washes of the government, and that American officers 
never do wrong in zealously opposing their country's enemies. 

Commodore Sloat received satisfactory information, at Mazat- 
lan on the 7th of June, 1846, that the Mexican troops, six or seven 
thousand in number, had invaded the territory of the United States, 
and attacked General Taylor. He w r as told that the American fleet 
was blockading the eastern coast, and he immediately entered upon 
a series of novel and important movements. He left Mazatlan, and 
sailed to Monterey, which he reached on the 3d of July, in the flag- 
ship Savannah. He found there the Cyane and the Levant. After 
an examination of the defences, &c, of the town, and completing 
his arrangements for capturing it, he sent Captain Mervine, on the 
morning of the 7th of July, to demand its surrender. The Mexican 
commander promptly answered that he was not authorized to surren- 
der the place, and referred Commodore Sloat to Don Jose Castro, the 
governor of California. It was therefore taken by Captain Mervine 
and Commander Page, who landed two hundred and fifty seamen 
and marines, marched to the custom-house, raised the star-spangled 
banner, amid cheers from the troops and bystanders, and a national 
salute from the squadron. A proclamation from the commodore was 
then posted about the town, in English and in Spanish, setting forth 
that war existed by the act of Mexico, that General Taylor had com- 
menced a career of conquest on the Rio Grande, by defeating a Mex- 
ican army of three times his own strength, and that the standard of 
the United States would be immediately carried throughout Califor- 
nia. It announced that, although the commodore came in arms, he 
came as a friend ; that thenceforth California would be a portion of 



COMMODORE SLOATS PROCLAMATION. 



437 




Capture of Monterey. 



the United States, and its peaceable inhabitants would be confirmed 
in the rights they then enjoyed, and have in addition the superior 
advantages afforded to the people by the constitution, laws, and re- 
sources of the United States, under which they might reasonably hope 
to advance and improve rapidly, both in agriculture and commerce. 
Such of the inhabitants as were not disposed to live peaceably under 
the government of the United States, were to be allowed time to dis- 
pose of their property, and to remove out of the country, if they 
chose, without any restriction, or to remain in it in the observance 
of strict neutrality. The civil functionaries were desired to retain 
their offices, and preserve public tranquillity; and the people and 
clergy were assured of their being unmolested in their property, 
rights, and possessions. This proclamation was expected to have 
the more effect, from the strict and praiseworthy adherence to its 
spirit by the crews of the ships, who did not commit a single irregu- 
larity of any kind during the whole time they were on shore. 

After taking possession of Monterey, Commodore Sloat summoned 
Don Jose Castro to surrender every thing under his control and 
jurisdiction in California, that that country might be spared the hor- 
rors of war. He was requested to meet the commodore at Monterey, 
to arrange terms of capitulation. Not being satisfied of the reason- 
ableness of this request, General Castro replied that he should consult 
the governor and assembly of the department, and meanwhile should 
2o2 



438 



CAPTURE OF YERBA BUENA. 




Capture of Yerba Buena. 



defend the country as long as he could rely upon the faithfulness of 
a single follower. On the 9th July, Commodore Sloat despatched 
a letter to Don Pio Pico, the governor at Santa Barbara, informing 
him of the summons to General Castro to surrender the country, and 
inviting him to come to Monterey to see for himself the manner in 
which the people of that place had been treated, the truth of the state- 
ment, that though he came in arms, he came as a friend to California. 
The governor, however, neither came nor answered the invitation. 

On the 6th of July, orders were sent by the commodore to Com. 
mander J. B. Montgomery, who was at San Francisco with the United 
States sloop Portsmouth, directing him to hoist the flag of the United 
States at Yerba Buena, or any other suitable place, take possession 
in the name of the United States of the fort and adjacent country, 
and secure the bay of San Francisco. He was also requested to for- 
ward a letter to Captain Fremont, to ascertain if he would co-operate 
in the conquest of the country. These instructions were received by 
Commander Montgomery on the 8th, and immediately carried out. 
He landed at Yerba Buena with seventy sailors and marines, hoisted 
the American flag, addressed the people, and posted the proclamation 
on the flag-staff. A volunteer force of thirty-two men was then or- 
ganized from the inhabitants of Yerba Buena, under Lieutenants 
Missroon and Watson, of the navy. As early as one o'clock on the 
8th, Lieutenant Missroon set out with a part of this new force to 



OPERATIONS OF CAPTAIN MONTGOMERY. 439 



ascertain the condition of the presidio and fort, and on the same day 
reported that he had found the presidio abandoned, and the fort in a 
dilapidated condition. He had displayed the American flag from its 
ramparts. On the same day, also, Lieutenant Watson started from 
Yerba Buena to intercept Captain Fremont, who was then on his 
march from the Sacramento. On the 11th of July, Commander 
Montgomery informed Commodore Sloat that the flag of the United 
States was flying at Yerba Buena, at Sutter's Fort, on the Sacramento, 
at Bodega, on the coast, and at Sonoura ; and added, that the pro- 
tection of person and property, which the American flag promised to 
California and its inhabitants, seemed to be generally hailed with 
satisfaction. On the day on which he sent this communication to the 
commodore, a British vessel of twenty-six guns, the Juno, arrived at 
San Francisco, and anchored. Captain Montgomery brought all his 
crew from the shore to the ship, as a preparation for defending his 
position, in case the English commander should think proper to make 
any opposition. The " volunteer guards of Yerba Buena" took upon 
themselves the task of defending the flag of the United States, as- 
suring the commander that it should wave while a single man of their 
body lived to defend it. Don Francisco Sanchez, the military com- 
mander of the district, promptly complied with the requisition of 
Commander Montgomery, that he should come in and deliver up the 
arms and public property in his possession. He said that he had no 
public property, but showed where several guns were buried. Lieu- 
tenant Missroon went to the mission of Dolores, but found only a 
quantity of public documents, which were carefully packed and 
sealed with the consulate seal, and deposited in the custom-house. 

N the 13th of July, at their 



own request, Commodore 
Sloat furnished a flag to the 
foreigners of the Pueblo of 
San Jose, a place seventy 
miles interior from Monterey. 
He had just completed the 
organization of a company 
of thirty-five dragoons, made 
up of volunteers from the 
ships and citizens, to recon- 
noiter the country, and keep 
open the land communica- 
tion between the different 
places held by the Ameri- 
cans. Purser Fauntleroy was 





440 CAPTAIN FREMONT. 

appointed to command this body, and Midshipman McLane was ap- 
pointed first lieutenant. On the 17th, Mr. Fauntleroy reconnoitered 
as far as the mission of St. Johns, intending to take that place, and 
recover ten brass guns said to have been buried there by the Mexi- 
cans some time previously. On his arrival there, he found the gal- 
lant Fremont already in possession, and the two returned together to 
the commodore at Monterey, setting out on the 19th of July. 

HILE these operations had been performed 
on the coast, with a preci- 
sion and determination that 
would have triumphed over 
all obstacles, the more for- 
tunate Captain Fremont had 
been engaged in the achieve- 
ment of an enterprise which 
added lasting honours to his 
already enviable reputation. As assistant and successor to the cele- 
brated Nicollet, he had served in exploring the territories of the far 
West, suffering amid the snows of the Rocky Mountains the greatest 
hardships and privations. He drew the attention of the whole 
country upon himself by his able report of two scientific expeditions 
which he conducted, one to the Rocky Mountains, in 1842, and the 
other to Oregon, in 1843-4, and the president conferred upon him 
the rare honour of advancing him two grades in the army at the 
same time. He left the seat of government in 1845, to continue his 
explorations beyond the Rocky Mountains, under orders which con- 
fined him wholly to scientific objects. He took no officer or soldier 
with him ; and the whole company which he led consisted only of 
sixty-two men, engaged by himself as security against the Indians, 
and for assistants in the duties of his mission. One of the objects 
proposed to be accomplished by him at this time was the discovery 
of a new and shorter route across the Rocky Mountains to the mouth 
of the Columbia, and the search would necessarily cause him to tra- 
verse a portion both of the unsettled and the inhabited parts of Cali- 
fornia. He was aware of the delicate nature of the relations between 
the United States and Mexico, and his conduct proved him to be the 
very man for the crisis ; wise in matters connected with interna- 
tional law, cautious in his language, and circumspect in his conduct, 
yet firm and spirited in his bearing when his rights as a man and 
an American were encroached upon. About the commencement of 
the year 1846, he approached the settlements in California. Leav- 
ing his men on the frontiers, a hundred miles from Monterey, he 
marched alone to that city, where he found the United States consul, 



GALLANTRY OF FREMONT. 



441 




Monterey, Upper California. 



T. 0. Larkin, Esq., with whom he visited the principal officers of 
the country. These they informed officially that his expedition was 
of a scientific character only ; that his men were not soldiers ; and 
that he was endeavouring to find the shortest route from the United 
States to the Pacific ocean. Upon this, Governor Castro complied 
with his request, that he might be permitted to pass the winter in the 
valley of San Joaquin, where there was grass for his horses, and game 
for his men. Captain Fremont then returned to his men, and they 
moved leisurely towards the place they had designated for recruiting 
their strength, encamping on the 3d of March on a rancho belonging 
to Mr. E. P. Hartwell. Here he received letters from Castro and 
the prefect of the country, ordering him out of it, threatening him 
that if he remained under any pretext whatever, he would be forcibly 
ejected. 

Determining to abide by the assurances given him in person at 
Monterey, Captain Fremont did not answer these messages, but told 
his men to hoist the American flag, as the only protection they had 
to look to. On the 7th of March, and the three following days, they 
employed themselves in fortifying their position by creating a breast- 
work of logs. Their position was on a high hill, whence they could 
see with their glasses the preparations of the general, in his camp at. 
the mission of St. Johns. On the 9th, Mr. Larkin sent letters to 
Captain Fremont, informing him of the movements of the Califor- 
nians, who were preparing to attack him with a large force of artil- 

56 



442 



FREMONTS LETTER TO MR. LARK1N. 



lery, cavalry, and infantry. One of these letters, carried by a Mexi- 
can, reached him, and he wrote an answer to the consul which will 
be preserved in the annals of our history as characteristic of the war 
and the warriors. "I am making myself as strong as possible," he 
says, "in the intention that, if we are unjustly attacked, we will fight 
to extremity, and refuse quarter, trusting to our country to avenge 
our death. No one has reached our camp, and from the heights we 
are able to see troops mustering at St. Johns and preparing cannon. 
I thank you for your kindness and good wishes, and would write 
more at length as to my intentions, did I not fear my letter would 
be intercepted. We have in no wise done wrong to the people 
or the authorities of the country, and if we are hemmed in and 
assaulted here, we will die, every man of us, under the flag of our 
country." 

The consul, Mr. Larkin, gave a translation of this letter to the alcalde, 
at his earnest request, and it was immediately sent to the general, 
who felt no anxiety to press too closely upon men who had unani- 
mously resolved to die before surrendering, and who, he well knew, 
would not die without a desperate resistance. 

'J Mttrfr- _;*^^APTAIN FREMONT, however, 

had previously resolved to 
abandon his mission, and re- 
turn to the United States, rather 
than bring about difficulties be- 
tween his country and Mexico, and now, 
finding the expected attack delayed, he 
quietly moved out of his encampment, on 
the night of the 10th of March. A private 
letter, written only to inform his lady of his 
personal concerns, has been made public by 
subsequent events, and we quote his own modest account of his doings 
in the valley of Joaquin, as given therein. " The Spaniards were 
somewhat rude and inhospitable below, and ordered me out of the 
country, after having given me permission to winter there. My 
sense of duty did not permit me to fight them, but we retired slowly 
and growlingly before a force of three or four hundred men and 
three pieces of artillery. Without the shadow of a cause, the governor 
suddenly raised the whole country against me, issuing a false and 
scandalous proclamation. Of course I did not dare to compromise 
the United States, against which appearances would have been 
strong ; but though it was in my power to increase my party by 
Americans, I refrained from committing a solitary act of hostility or 
impropriety." 





CASTRO'S PROCLAMATION. 



443 




'HE valiant General Castro, finding the 
gallant little band moving towards 
Oregon, led his followers into their 
camp, where he found the staff used 
for the flag, some tent poles, some 
old clothes, and two old pack sad- 
dles, all thrown away, because they 
were useless. He magnified these 
into munitions of war, and stated 
that he had received various mes- 
sages from Captain Fremont, threatening to exterminate the Califor- 
nians. Mr. Larkin could not get him to name any one of the mes- 
sengers. A lying proclamation was posted in the billiard-room at 
Monterey, a day or two afterwards, in which the general informed the 
inhabitants that a band of "bandoleros," (highwaymen,) under Cap- 
tain Fremont, of the United States army, had come into his depart- 
ment, but that he with two hundred patriots had driven them out, 
and sent them into the back country. Some of these patriots soon 
after came to Monterey, and reported that the cowards had run, and 
that they had driven them into the Sacramento river ; others said 
that they had driven them into the bulrushes on the plains of the 
Sacramento, and that in their flight they had left some of their horses 
behind them. 

The truth of the matter was, that Captain Fremont retired " growl- 
ingly" before them, marching only from four to six miles a day, and 
the affair of the horses was another instance of his scrupulous care to 
avoid compromising his government in any way. Several of the 
horses of the Californians had strayed into his camp in the night, and 
he had left them there in the morning when he went away, that they 
might not be able to accuse him of carrying them off. During the 
whole "pursuit," these patriots took good care not to approach too 
near to the little party, whose love for their commander, and confi- 
dence in his superior judgment, alone restrained them from an attack 
upon the party that followed. At the middle of May, Captain Fre- 
mont had arrived at the great Tlamath lake, in the Oregon territory. 
He intended to return to the United States by the Columbia and Mis- 
souri, through the northern pass in the Rocky Mountains, but he 
found his progress stopped by bands of hostile Indians, who had been 
excited against him by Castro, and who had already killed and 
wounded five of his men. 

We quote from an able memorial of Christopher Carson, whose 
exploits in the service of Captain Fremont have made him deservedly 
famous and popular, an account of the warfare with the Tlamath In- 



444 



TLAMATH INDIANS. 




Colonel Fremont. 



dians, as a specimen of the incidents frequently met with by these 
indefatigable explorers. 

A courier having overtaken Captain Fremont at Tlamath lake, to 
say that Mr. Gillespie and five men were endeavouring to overtake 
him, he took ten men and returned sixty miles with the courier, 
making all haste, in order to reach them before night, and prevent 
any attack which the Indians might be tempted to make on a small 
party. These Tlamath Indians, by nature brave and warlike, have 
now a new source of power in the iron arrow heads and axes fur- 
nished them by the British posts in that country. Their arrows can 
only be extracted from the flesh by the knife, as they are barbed, and 
of course not to be drawn out. The events of that night, and the 
days following, illustrate so fully the nightly danger of an Indian 
country, that I will give them in Carson's own words : 

" Mr. Gillespie had brought the colonel letters from home, the first 
he had had since leaving the States the year before — and he was up, 
and kept a large fire burning till after midnight ; the rest of us were 
tired out, and all went to sleep. This was the only night in all our 



FREMONT S PARTY SURPRISED. 



445 




Christopher Carson. 



travels, except the one night on the island in the Salt lake, that we 
failed to keep guard ; and as the men were so tired, and we expected 
no attack, now that we had sixteen in the party, the colonel didn't 
like to ask it of them ; but sat up late himself. Owens and I were 
sleeping together, and we were waked at the same time by the licks 
of the axe that killed our men. At first I didn't know it was that ; 
but I called to Basil, who was that side — ' What's the matter there ? 
what's that fuss about?' — he never answered, for he was dead, then, 
poor fellow, and he never knew what killed him — his head had been 
cut in, in his sleep ; the other groaned a little as he died. The 
Delawares (we had four with us) were sleeping at that fire, and they 
sprang up as the Tlamaths charged them. One of them caught up a 
gun which was unloaded ; but, although he could do no execution, 
he kept them at bay, fighting like a soldier, and didn't give up until 
he was shot full of arrows — three entering his heart ; he died bravely. 
As soon as I had called out, I saw it was Indians in the camp, and I 
and Owens together cried out 'Indians.' There were no orders 
given ; things went on too fast, and the colonel had men with him 
that didn't need to be told their duty. The colonel and I, Maxwell, 
Owens, Godey, and Stepp, jumped together, we six, and ran to the 
assistance of our Delawares. I don't know who fired and who didn't : 
2P 



446 



SKIRMISH WITH THE TLAMATHS. 




but I think it was Stepp's shot that killed the Tlamath chief; for it 
was at the crack of Stepp's gun that he fell. He had an English 
half axe strung to his wrist by a cord, and there were forty arrows left 
in his quiver— the most beautiful and warlike arrows I ever saw. He 
must have been the bravest man among them, from the way he was 
armed, and judging by his cap. When the Tlamaths saw him fall, 
they ran, but we lay, every man with his rifle cocked, until daylight, 
expecting another attack. 

N the morning, we found by the tracks 
that from fifteen to twenty of the Tla- 
maths had attacked us. They had 
killed three of our men, and wounded 
one of the Delawares, who scalped 
the chief, whom we left where he fell. 
Our dead we carried on mules ; but, 
after going about ten miles, we found 
it impossible to get them any farther 
through the thick timber, and, find- 
ing a secret place, we buried them 
under logs and chunks, having no way 
to dig a grave. It was only a few days before this fight, that some 
of these same Indians had come into our camp ; and, although we 
had only meat for two days, and felt sure that we should have to eat 
mules for ten or fifteen days to come, the colonel divided with them, 
and even had a mule unpacked, to give them some tobacco and 
knives." 

The party then retraced its way into California, and two days after 
this rencounter, they met a large village of Tlamaths — more than a 
hundred warriors. Carson was in advance with ten men, but one of 
them having been discovered, he could not follow his orders, which 
were to send back word, and let Fremont come up in case they found 
Indians. But as they had been seen, it only remained to charge the 
village, which they did, killing many, and putting the rest to flight. 
" The women and children," Carson says, "we didn't interfere with; 
but they burnt the village, together with their canoes and fishing nets." 
In a subsequent encounter the same day, Carson's life was immi- 
nently exposed. As they galloped up, he was rather in advance 
when he observed an Indian fixing his arrow to let fly at him. Car- 
son levelled his rifle, but it snapped, and in an instant the arrow 
would have pierced him, had not Fremont, seeing the danger, 
dashed his horse on the Indian, and knocked him down. "I owe 
my life to them two," says Carson — " the colonel and Sacramento 
saved me." 



CAPTURE OF ARMS AND AMMUNITION. 



447 




HE name Sacramento, is that of a 
noble Californian horse which 
Captain Sutter gave to Colonel 
Fremont in 1844, and which has 
twice made the distance between 
Kentucky and his native valley, 
where he earned his name by 
swimming the river after which he 
is called, at the close of a long 
day's journey. Notwithstanding 
all his hardships, for he has tra- 
velled every where with his mas- 
ter, he is still the favourite horse 
of Colonel Fremont. 

Besides these Indians, Captain 
Fremont had mountains in front 
on which the snow was still fall- 
ing, and which made the climate 
of the region near them as cold as 
in midwinter. In the rear, on the 
north bank of the San Francisco Bay, General Castro was assembling 
troops with the avowed object of attacking the party of Captain Fre- 
mont and all the American settlers, because, he alleged, the captain 
had come for the purpose of inciting the settlers to revolt. He re- 
mained for some days deliberating upon the difficulties of his situa- 
tion, suffering with his men and horses, from cold, fatigue, and 
famine. The result of his deliberations was a determination to turn 
upon his pursuers and fight them, although they numbered ten times 
his force, and to seek to secure himself and the American settlers by 
overturning the existing government. 

Having fixed upon the proper course, Captain Fremont pursued it 
with a vigour that excited the most lively feelings of astonishment 
and terror in the minds of General Castro and his patriots. On the 
11th of June, he struck the first blow. At daylight on that day, he 
surprised an officer and fourteen men on the way to the Mexican 
camp, with two hundred horses for Castro's army. The horses were 
retained, and the officer and the men released. At daybreak on the 
15th, the military rendezvous and intended head-quarters was sur- 
prised by the Americans, who captured there nine pieces of brass can- 
non, two hundred and fifty muskets, and other arms and ammunition, 
a general, a colonel, a captain, and other officers. Captain Fremont 
left a party of fourteen men here as a garrison, and repaired to the 
Rio de los Americanos to obtain aid from the American settlers. An 



448 FLIGHT OF CASTRO. 

express came after him from Sonoma, with information of the ap- 
proach of a large force under General Castro. He therefore set out 
on the afternoon of the 23d of June, with a force of ninety mounted 
men, armed with rifles, and travelled day and night. He reached 
Sonoma, after marching eighty miles, at two o'clock on the morning 
of the 25th. A squadron of seventy dragoons, under De la Torre, 
the vanguard of Castro's force, crossed the bay, and was attacked 
and defeated by a party of twenty Americans, with the loss of two men 
killed and several wounded. Two of Captain Fremont's men going 
on an express were taken by De la Torre, and cut to pieces alive 
with knives. The Americans retaliated, by instantly shooting three 
of the party of De la Torre, whom they captured. Having cleared 
the north side of the Bay of San Francisco of the enemy, Captain 
Fremont called the Americans together at Sonoma, addressed them 
upon the dangers of their situation, and recommended as their only 
means of safety, a declaration of independence and war upon Cas- 
tro and his troops.. The independence was proclaimed immediately, 
July 4th, 1846, and the war followed. A few days afterwards, they 
heard of the taking of Monterey by Commodore Sloat, and the ex- 
istence of the war ; the American flag was promptly substituted for 
that of the Californian revolutionists. Castro fled south at the head 
of four or five hundred men, and Captain Fremont, leaving some 
fifty men in garrisons, pursued him with a hundred and sixty rifle- 
men. It was at this stage of his proceedings that he met Mr. Faunt- 
leroy, and received Commodore Sloat's request that he would come 
to Monterey. 

Commodore Stockton had arrived at that place on the afternoon 
of the 15th of July, 1846, and reported for duty to Commodore Sloat, 
who soon afterwards resigned the chief command to him, and sailed 
for home, to recruit his health, which had been enfeebled by arduous 
services. He arrived at the seat of government in November, 1846, 
having come by the way of Panama. "This gallant and meritorious 
officer" was highly applauded for his course by the department, 
having observed the line of conduct prescribed by his instructions 
"with such intelligence and fidelity, that no complaint has ever been 
made of any unauthorized aggression on his part." 

It has been matter of poignant regret to the gallant officers and 
men of our navy, that while the army has been gaining such numerous 
and imperishable laurels in the recent war, so few opportunities have 
been afforded for assailing the enemy by ships and steamers. Where- 
ever there has been an opportunity for gaining distinction, and sig- 
nalizing the honour of our naval flag, it has always been eagerly 
embraced ; and we shall see in the sequel of this California affair, 



PURSUIT OF CASTRO. 



449 




that the sailors and their officers performed a very distinguished part 
in the drama of the conquest. 

N the day after taking 
command, Commo- 
dore Stockton or- 
ganized the " Cali- 
fornia battalion of 
mounted riflemen," 
by appointing all 
the necessary offi- 
cers and receiving them as volunteers into 
the service of the United States. Captain Fre- 
mont was appointed major, and Lieutenant Gil- 
lespie, captain of the battalion. Major Fremont sailed with his bat- 
talion, in the United States ship Cyane, for San Diego, in the hope 
of getting between the Colorado and General Castro, and cutting off 
his retreat. He arrived at San Diego on the 29th of July, but was 
detained there by the difficulty of finding horses, the Californians 
having driven off nearly all their animals. Major Fremont was not 
able to move until the 8th of August, when he started in pursuit of 
Castro. Commodore Stockton meanwhile had sailed to San Pedro, 
where he landed about three hundred and sixty men from the frigate 
Congress, and commenced a march towards the " camp of the Mesa," 
a fortified position held by General Castro, three miles from Cuidad 
de los Angeles, the City of the Angels, and the capital of the Cali- 
fornias. When the gallant sailor-army had arrived within twelve 
miles of the camp of the Meza, General Castro abandoned it and fled. 
His force separated into small parties, and ran away in all directions. 
Major Fremont joined the commodore on the 13th of August, with 
eighty mounted riflemen, and the united forces entered the City of 
the Angels, and took possession of the government house. On the 
16th, Major Fremont again set off in pursuit of Castro, but it was 
soon found that the patriot chieftain had made good his escape 
towards the city of Mexico. Most of his officers, however, were cap- 
tured and brought to the City of the Angels, where Commodore 
Stockton had been busy in posting a proclamation and establishing a 
civil government. 

On the 22d of August, elections were ordered to be held on the 
15th of September, when Walter Colton, the chaplain of the frigate 
Congress, was chosen alcalde of Monterey. He had already 
established a newspaper there, called the Californian, which had 
been preceded by the publication at Yerba Buena of the California 
Star. 

2p2 57 



450 GALLANTRY OF LIEUTENANT TALBOT. 

s^BlSiSSlk^'^p 1 HE despatch of Commodore Stockton to the 

■ navy department, on the 28th of August, 
1846, says : — " I have now the honour to 
inform you that the flag of the United States 
is flying from every commanding position 
in the territory of California, and that this 
rich and beautiful country belongs to the 
United States, and is for ever free from 
Mexican dominion." The gallant commo- 
dore, however, announced the conquest 
somewhat in advance. Difficulties were yet 
to be encountered, and exploits achieved before the country would 
be quietly in possession of its new masters. Commodore Stockton 
directed Major Fremont to increase his force to three hundred men, 
and to station fifty at the City of the Angels, under Captain Gillespie, 
fifty at Monterey, fifty at San Francisco, twenty-five at Santa Barbara, 
and to keep the others together for service, wherever they might be 
required, that the commodore might himself be able to " leave the 
desk and the camp, and take to the ship and to the sea." He then 
embarked for San Francisco, and Major Fremont, making a tempo- 
rary distribution of his forces, set out to recruit his strength, accord- 
ing to the commodore's order. He took but forty men with him, 
and nine of these, with the boyish Lieutenant Talbot, (the Colonel 
Croghan of the Mexican war.) he left at Santa Barbara. 

On the 23d of September, the City of the Angels was invested by 
an army of Californians, whose overwhelming numbers caused Cap- 
tain Gillespie to surrender that place. He returned with his thirty 
riflemen to San Pedro, and there embarked for Monterey. The Cali- 
fornian chief, Manuel Gaspar, then led two hundred of his men against 
Santa Barbara, where they were braved by Lieutenant Talbot and his 
insignificant force for ten days. This youthful commander, who had 
won the esteem and confidence of Colonel Fremont, in his former 
expeditions, now proved himself worthy of holding the post of danger. 
He held the town until he was completely besieged, and then refus- 
ing to surrender, forced his way through the enemy to the mountains 
in the vicinity, where he remained eight days, suffering from cold and 
hunger. The enemy made several attempts to induce him to sur- 
render, which he rejected. One detachment of forty men advanced 
to take him, but was driven back. They then offered to permit him 
to retire if he would promise neutrality during the war, but he told 
them tha* he preferred to fight. At length finding that neither 
force nor persuasion would cause him to leave his position, they set 
fire to the grass and brush around him and burned him out. He then 



BATTLE OF SAN PASQUAL. 451 

retreated with his nine men to Monterey, five hundred miles, mostly 
on foot. The brave fellows were welcomed as from the grave, the 
fears of their companions that they were slain having been confirmed 
by a report of the Californians to that effect. Colonel Fremont had 
made an attempt to go from San Francisco to the relief of Captain 
Gillespie, but after being at sea twenty-nine days, he was compelled 
to put back to Monterey by bad weather. A day or two after the 
arrival of Lieutenant Talbot, a party of fifty-seven Americans, under 
Captains Burrows and Thompson, were attacked by the Californians, 
eighty in number. Captain Burrows and three Americans were 
slain. Three of the enemy also fell, but they kept the Americans 
shut up at the mission of St. Johns, until Major Fremont marched 
to their assistance. The whole party left St. Johns on the 26th of 
November, and arrived at San Fernando on the 11th of January. 

"While these events were passing in California, General Kearny 
was on his march thither from Santa Fe. On the 6th of October, 
he met Carson, with fifteen men, coming as an express from the City 
of the Angels, with an account of the conquest of that country by 
Fremont and Stockton. With the devotion to the public service for 
which he has always been characterized, he complied with the re- 
quest of General Kearny to allow some one else to take his de- 
patches to Washington, and, giving up his hopes of seeing his family, 
he turned his face again towards the Pacific as a guide. General 
Kearny then sent back a part of his forces and continued his march 
with one hundred men, well equipped. On the 15th of October, they 
left the Rio Grande, and commenced the march across the mountains. 

On the 5th of December, they were met by a small party of volun- 
teers, under Captain Gillespie, who had come from San Diego for 
the purpose of giving them information concerning the state of the 
country. Captain Gillespie informed them that there was an armed 
party of Californians, with a number of extra horses, encamped at 
San Pasqual, three leagues distant. General Kearny determined to 
march upon them, in the double hope of gaining a victory and a re- 
mount for his poor soldiers, who had completely worn out their 
animals in the march from Santa Fe, one thousand and fifty miles. 
Captain Johnston led the advanced guard of twelve dragoons, mounted 
on the best horses in the company, then came twenty volunteers, 
under Captains Gibson and Gillespie, and in the rear two mountain 
howitzers, with dragoons to manage them, mounted on sorry mules. 
The rest of the army were ordered to follow on the trail of this de- 
tachment with the baggage. At daybreak on the 6th of December, 
they encountered the enemy, who was already in the saddle. Cap- 
tain Johnston made a furious charge upon them, with the advance 



452 



BATTLE OF SAN PASQUAL. 




Battle of San PasquaL 



guard, and was well supported by the dragoons. He fell almost in 
the very beginning of the fight, but the action did not flag, and the 
enemy were forced to retreat. Captain Moore led off rapidly in pur- 
suit, but the mules of the dragoons could not keep up with his horses, 
and the enemy seeing the break in the line renewed the fight, and 
charged with the lance. They fought well, and their superiority of 
numbers had well nigh proved fatal to the little band ; but the dra- 
goons came up and they finally fled from the field, carrying off 
most of their dead with them. They had kept up a constant fire in 
the first part of the fight, and used their lances with great dexterity 
at its close, and the American loss was heavy. Captain Johnston, 
Captain Moore, Lieutenant Hammond, two Serjeants, two corporals, 
eleven privates, and a man attached to the topographical department 
were slain. General Kearny was wounded in two places, Captain 
Gillespie had three wounds, Lieutenant Warner, of the topographical 
engineers, three, and Captain Gibson and eleven others were also 
wounded, most of them having from two to ten wounds from lances. 
The howitzers were not brought into action until near its close, when 
the mules attached to one of them got alarmed, broke from their 
drivers, and ran away with it, directly into the enemy's lines. The 
severe wounds of the soldiers caused a halt in the march until the 
10th of December, when the march was resumed, and on the 12th 
the army reached San Diego. 



BATTLE OF SAN GABRIEL. 453 

Commodore Stockton had sent down the frigate Savannah, as soon 
as he heard of the outbreak of the Californians, to relieve Captain 
Gillespie, but she arrived too late. The crew, numbering three hun- 
dred and twenty men, landed and marched towards the City of the 
Angels. Half way between the San Pedro and Los Angeles, and 
fifteen miles from the ship, they met the Californians in numbers, 
well appointed, with fine horses and artillery. The gallant sailors 
maintained an action for some time with their small arms, on foot, 
but it was useless to fly at such a disadvantage, and they finally re- 
tired, having lost eleven in killed and wounded. Captain Stockton 
came down himself to San Pedro in the Congress, and marched upon 
Los Angeles with a sailor-army, which profited by previous errors, 
and took some of the ship's cannons with them. These they dragged 
by hand wilh ropes. At the Rancho Sepulvida they met a large 
force of the enemy, which Captain Stockton decoyed, by a stratagem, 
into a position near to his main body, formed into a triangle, with 
the guns hidden by the men. As soon as they were in a proper 
place, he extended his wings, and opened upon them with the artil- 
lery. More than a hundred were killed, a still larger number 
wounded, a hundred taken prisoners, and the whole army put to 
flight in disorder. Mounted on horses, while the sailors were on 
foot, the enemy had had, hitherto, the advantage of choosing his own 
time, place, and distance of attack, but the means of transportation 
were placed, by this victory, in the hands of the sailors themselves, 
and as soon as they could thus meet the enemy, they commenced a 
series of skirmishes, in which they displayed the utmost courage and 
activity. 

HE arrival of General Kearny at San 
Diego, was opportune ; and Commodore 
Stockton and he now laid a plan for 
putting an end to the w T ar. On the 
29th of December, the little army, com- 
posed of sixty dismounted dragoons, 
fifty California volunteers, and about 
four hundred marines and sailors, started 
from San Diego to march to Los Angeles. They had proceeded a 
hundred and ten miles to the Rio San Gabriel, when they met the 
enemy m a strong position, with six hundred mounted men and four 
pieces of artillery, prepared to dispute the passage of the river. 
January 8, 1847, the necessary preparations for a battle having been 
made, the Americans w r aded through the water under a galling fire, 
dragging their guns after them, and reserving their fire until they 
reached the opposite bank. Here they repelled a charge of the 




454 



BATTLE OF SAN GABRIEL. 




Battle of San Gabriel. 



enemy, and then charged up the bank in the most gallant manner, 
and succeeded, after fighting an hour and a half, in driving the 
enemy from the field. The Americans encamped there over night, 
and on the next morning resumed their march. On the plains of 
the Mesa the enemy made another effort to save their capital. They 
were concealed in a ravine, with their artillery, until the Americans 
came almost within gunshot, when they opened a brisk fire with their 
field-pieces upon the right flank, and at the same time charged both 
on the front and rear. They fell back as the Americans advanced, 
and finally retired, after concentrating their forces, and making one 
more charge on the left flank. In the afternoon the army reached 
the banks of the Mesa, and encamped three miles below Los Angeles. 
On the 10th they entered the city without opposition. The loss in 
these two battles was very slight, one private being killed, and Cap- 
tain Gillespie, Lieutenant Rowand, of the navy, and eleven privates 
wounded. The enemy carried off their dead and wounded, so that 
the extent of their loss is unknown. General Kearny says that it 
must have been considerable, and Commodore Stockton estimates it 
at between seventy and eighty. 

Two or three days previously to the battle of the 8th of January, 
Jose Maria Flores, the commander of the Californians, had sent two 
commissioners to Captain Stockton, with proposals for making a 
treaty of peace. The commodore replied that he could not recog- 
nize Flores, who had broken his parole, as an honourable man, or as 
one having any rightful authority, or worthy to be treated with ; that 
he was a rebel in arms, and that if he caught him he would have him 



DISPUTE BETWEEN KEARNY AND STOCKTON. 455 

shot. After losing the battles of the 8th and 9th, they met Colonel 
Fremont on his way to Cuidad de los Angeles. Jose Maria Flores had 
fled, leaving the command to Don Andres Pico, who made proposi- 
tions of surrendering his forces to Colonel Fremont, which the latter, 
being ignorant of the occurrences of the few days previous, agreed 
to accept. The articles of capitulation were signed on the 13th of 
January. The terms did not treat the Californians either as rebels or 
citizens of the United States, and did not exact oaths of allegiance 
until a definitive treaty of peace should be made between Mexico and 
the United States. Present obedience to the American authorities 
was required, and the occurrences of the past were forgotten. Com- 
modore Stockton approved of this agreement, though he was sorry to 
have lost the opportunity of punishing the officers for breaking thei: 
parole. The territory again became quiet. 

Colonel Fremont joined the forces of Kearny and StockCoa £t Lo^ 
Angeles on the 15th. Here the misunderstanding arose beiweit 
General Kearny and Commodore Stockton, as to their relative pre • 
rogatives, which, in the end, lost to the country the valuable service 
of one of the most talented and enterprising of her military officer* 
Commodore Stockton had been deeply impressed with the bravery 
activity, and zeal displayed by Colonel Fremont in the conquest ot 
the country. Without men or money, he had succeeded, by his un 
tiring personal efforts, in raising from the widely scattered little set- 
tlements a force of four hundred and fifty men, well mounted, and 
supplied with every equipment of war. They formed one of the most 
curious collections of men ever found in one army. There were 
representatives from almost every nation of the civilized world, and 
Indians from many different tribes of North America, all speaking 
different tongues ; yet he had succeeded in disciplining them into a 
very efficient corps, and had led them with constant success wherever 
they were needed, although he had always a force of Californians 
hovering around his flanks, watching to take advantage of the first 
false move, or the least decline of vigilance. 

In return for his services, before leaving the coast, Commodore 
Stockton appointed him governor of California. 

In January, 1847, Commodore Shubrick arrived at Monterey, and 
assumed the command of the naval forces on that station. Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Cooke joined General Kearny at San Diego with the 
the Mormon battalion, in fine order, good health, and high spirits. 
They were posted at the mission of San Luis Rey, to prevent any re- 
inforcements of troops entering California from the department of 
Sonora. General Kearny sailed to Monterey. Captain Tompkins 
arrived early in February, with his company of United States artil- 



456 



ATTACK ON THE GARRISONS. 




Presidio of San Francisco. Encampment of the New York Volunteers. 



lery, and was stationed at Monterey, and on the 6th of March, Colo- 
nel Stevenson arrived, with two hundred and fifty of the New York 
California volunteers at San Francisco. The remainder of his resri- 
ment arrived soon after. He was soon afterwards ordered to occupy 
Monterey with four companies, and Lieutenant-Colonel Burton, with 
three companies, took post at Santa Barbara. The emigrants who 
had formed the California battalion were discharged, and began to 
establish themselves. New settlements were made in all directions. 
On the 16th of July, 1847, the time of service of the Mormon batta- 
lion expired, when the military force of the country consisted of 
Colonel Stevenson's regiment, one company of dragoons, and one 
of light artillery. This army, with the co-operation of the navy, has 
proved amply sufficient to preserve order in the country, from which 
the most cheering accounts are continually arriving. The last act 
of General Kearny was to order Lieutenant-Colonel Burton to sail to 
La Paz, in Lower California, and take possession of that country. 
The occupation of the province was made without much difficulty, 
but when the fleet left the Gulf of California, to avoid the severity 
of the winter months, the people rose upon the several garrisons, 
and a number of minor battles and sieges occurred, the particulars 
of which have not been received in any authentic form. The Ame- 
ricans generally maintained their positions, and in defending them 
evinced a high-toned bravery and determination which would have 



INSTRUCTIONS TO KEARNY. 457 

won for them unfading laurels on a more extensive field. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Burton gained a brilliant victory at La Paz, over three hun- 
dred of the enemy, killing and wounding fifty of their number, with 
the loss of only three men. The defence of San Jose, the most 
southern port of California, was very creditable. Some thirty sailor- 
soldiers, and twenty California volunteers, under Lieutenant Hey- 
wood, having been surrounded and besieged for thirty days by nearly 
four hundred of the enemy, they maintained their post, despite of 
thirst and famine, and the vigorous assaults of the Californians, until 
they were relieved by the arrival of the United States ship Cyane, 
the crew of which landed and put the enemy to flight. A series of 
small fights and skirmishes also took place on the Pacific coast of 
Mexico. The town of Guaymas was bombarded in October, 1847, 
by the Congress and the Portsmouth, the garrison, of eight hun- 
dred men, driven out, and the town taken. Commander Selfridge, 
of the United States sloop Dale, landed near Sinaloa, with eighty- 
eight men, and routed a force of four hundred of the enemy, killing 
and wounding forty of their number. 

In February, 1847, General Kearny had received instructions, 
issued from the war department in the preceding year, and, in con- 
sequence, assumed the direction of operations on the land, and the 
administrative functions of government over the people and territory 
of California. A proclamation announcing this fact was issued by 
him and Commodore Shubrick, on the 1st of March, 1847. As soon 
as Colonel Fremont was apprized of this action, he started, on the 
21st of March, from Los Angeles, attended by a coloured man and 
two Californian gentlemen, Don Andres Pico, and his brother, Don 
Jesus Pico. Both of these owed their lives to Colonel Fremont ; he 
having granted that of the first in the capitulation of the 13th of Janu- 
ary, and pardoned the other, at the solicitation of his wife and chil- 
dren, and friends, when he was taken and condemned to death, in 
December, 1846, for having broken his parole.* 

* The scene between the colonel and the friends of the criminal, is described as 
extremely affecting. His heart had nothing in it which could withstand the accents of 
grief, and the outpourings of joy and gratitude when he pronounced the words of pardon, 
almost equally overpowered him. Don Jesus had been calm, composed, and quiet, while 
undergoing his trial and sentence, but when he was told of his restoration to life and 
liberty, his ardent feelings burst through his natural reserve ; he threw himself at the 
colonel's feet, swore eternal fidelity to him, and demanded the privilege of going with 
him and dying for him. Colonel Fremont had much difficulty in reconciling his own 
men to the release of the prisoner, but the faithfulness of Don Jesus to his preserver and 
the Americans, and the quiet which has since reigned in the country, prove that, in 
obeying the dictates of mercy and humanity, Colonel Fremont followed a course which 
the ablest policy would have dictated. The words of pardon were given by Fremont 
himself, a circumstance which heightened the interest of the scene, and contributed in no 
little degree to strengthen the subsequent friendship between the two chieftains. 

2Q 58 



458 



FREMONT COURT-MARTIAL LED. 




HE ride of Colonel Fre- 
mont to Monterey and 
return to Los Angeles, a 
journey of more than eight 
hundred miles, was per- 
formed in eight days, in- 
cluding two days' deten- 
tion, and all stoppages. 
Their speed was at the 
rate of one hundred and 
twenty-five miles daily, 
showing the extraordinary 
powers of the Californian horses. 

Colonel Fremont, when informed of the commission from the go- 
vernment as commander-in-chief, and of the orders with which 
General Kearny arrived in California, declined to obey his military 
orders, and continued to act as " governor and commander-in-chief 
of California," under the appointment of Commodore Stockton, on 
the ground that the authority conferred on General Kearny had be- 
come obsolete by the force of events, not looked to by the govern- 
ment as to happen until after the arrival of General Kearny in the 
territory. The principal of these was the conquest of California, 
which, he alleged, had been achieved by Commodore Stockton and 
himself, before the arrival of General Kearny and the troops under 
his command. At the end of May, General Kearny left the countr, 
to return home, having appointed Colonel Mason governor of Cali- 
fornia. Colonel Fremont accompanied him, bringing back his ori- 
ginal engineering party. They reached Fort Leavenworth in sixty- 
six days, their march for the last fifty-seven days averaging thirty-one 
miles daily. At Fort Leavenworth, formal charges (of mutiny, dis- 
obedience of lawful commands of his superior officer, and conduct to 
the prejudice of good order and military discipline) were preferred 
by General Kearny against Colonel Fremont, who asked for a speedy 
trial. He was subsequently tried in Washington, before a court-mar- 
tial, which found him guilty of all the charges. With reference to the 
peculiar circumstances in which he had been placed, " between two 
officers of superior rank, each claiming to command-in-chief in Cali- 
fornia, circumstances in their nature calculated to embarrass the mind 
and excite the doubts of officers of greater experience than the ac- 
cused, and in consideration of the important professional services ren- 
dered by him previous to the occurrence of the acts for which he was 
tried," the officers of the court recommended him to executive cle- 
mency. The president was of opinion that the charge of mutiny was 



MURDER OF GOVERNOR BENT. 459 

not sustained, but approved the sentence of the court, which was " dis- 
missal from the service," on the ground of the accused being guilty 
of the other two charges. He however remitted the sentence, and 
directed Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont to be released from arrest and 
report for duty. He was ordered to join the rifle regiment, of which 
he held his commission as lieutenant-colonel, in Mexico, but he was 
not conscious of having done any thing to merit the finding of the 
court against him, and he would not seem to admit its justice by ac- 
cepting executive clemency. He therefore resigned his commission. 
Soon after the departure of Colonel Doniphan for Chihuahua, an 
insurrection broke out in the northern part of New Mexico, which 
appeared to have for its object the massacre of all American resi- 
dents, and such of the Mexicans as had taken office under the govern- 
ment established by General Kearny. A conspiracy was first formed 
under a number of prominent Mexicans, headed by Thomas Ortiz 
and Diego Archaleta. The postponement of their scheme from the 
time first fixed for its accomplishment led to its discovery, and its 
leaders fled. Their doctrines, howeyer, continued to be dissemi- 
nated among the people, and gave anxiety to the authorities. Go- 
vernor Bent issued an ably written proclamation on the 5th of Janu- 
ary, calculated to do away with the false impressions which had 
been made upon the minds of the people by their infatuated leaders, 
■and exhorting them to remain quiet and enjoy the protection and 
security offered them. This paper seemed to have had the desired 
effect, and confiding in the apparent tranquillity, the governor went 
to Taos, unattended, on some private business. On the 19th of 
January, a party of Pueblo Indians came to the village, demanding 
the release of two of their comrades, who were confined in prison for 
crime. Stephen L. Lee, the sheriff, was about to give them up, when 
Vigil, the Mexican prefect, forebade it. The Indians then killed 
both Vigil and Lee, and released the prisoners. Then being joined 
by the Mexicans, they marched towards the house of Governor Bent, 
but being informed of their approach, he rose from his bed, dressed 
himself, and seized his pistols. A woman in the house advised him 
to fight, but he said it was useless to oppose such a crowd of savages, 
and he would endeavour to get assistance or escape. There was a 
window opening from his house into that of another, through which 
he was passing, when he received two arrows from the Indians, who 
had covered the house-tops. He made his way to the door and 
asked assistance from some of the persons present, but they refused 
to aid him, telling him he must die. The Indians by this time had 
obtained an entrance into the house, and they shot him through the 
body and killed him. One Tomas then took the governor's pistol 



460 



INDIAN ATROCITIES. 




Indian Atrocities in New Mexico. 



and shot him in the face. They then scalped him, stretched his body 
on a board with brass nails, and paraded it through the streets. The 
district attorney, Mr. Leal, they treated in a more brutal manner, 
scalping him alive, and killing him by shooting arrows into his body 
a little way at a time. Two others fell victims to their barbarity. 
They then sent messengers all over the country, informing the people 
that a blow had been struck, and inviting their aid in prosecuting 
the revolt. On the same day, several Americans were murdered at 
the Arroyo Honda, and two others on the Rio Colorado.* 

Colonel Price heard of these events on the 20th of January, 
and at the same time learned that the insurgents had collected 
an army and were advancing to fight him. He prepared an expedi- 
tion against them, and met them on the 24th of January, with a 
force of three hundred and fifty-three rank and file, and four howit- 
zers. The Mexicans were about fifteen hundred strong, in the 
valley bordering the Rio del Norte, in possession of the heights 

* These atrocities are only fair specimens of what the Indians are constantly perpe- 
trating, in the district of San Luis. Four hundred Mexicans, including many women 
and children, have been killed by them in that district during this war. 



ASSAULT OF PUEBLO DE TAOS. 



461 



commanding the road to Canada. They saw that the train of Colo- 
nel Price's command was some distance in the rear, and attempted 
to cut it off. In this they were foiled, and the battle was regularly 
commenced. In a few minutes they were dislodged from every one 
of their positions, and flying in all directions. Colonel Price lost 
two killed and six wounded. The enemy left thirty-six dead on the 
field, and carried off their wounded. The enemy retreated so rapidly 
that they could not be overtaken. On the 29th of January, Colonel 
Price learned that some sixty or eighty of them were posted on the 
gorge leading to Embudo, and he despatched Captain Burgwin, with 
one hundred and eighty men, to fight them. The road to be travelled 
would not admit of the passage of artillery or baggage wagons. 

APTAIN BURGWIN found them six hun- 
dred strong, posted on the precipitous 
sides of the mountains, where the gorge 
would only admit the passage of three 
men abreast. There could scarcely be a 
better position for defence than that they 
held, yet Captain Burgwin drove them 
from it, with the loss, on their part, of 
twenty killed and sixty wounded. He 
had only one man killed and one wound- 
ed. He marched through the pass and 
entered Embudo. From thence he 
marched to Trampas, where he met Colo- 
nel Price, and the whole army marched over the Taos mountain, break- 
ing a road through the snow which covered it for their artillery. The 
enemy were found to have fortified Pueblo de Taos, a place of great 
strength, surrounded by adobe walls and strong pickets, every part 
of which were flanked by some projecting building. He opened his 
batteries on the town on the 3d of February, but in a little time re- 
tired to await the concentration of his forces. On the 4th, at nine 
o'clock in the morning, the fire was again opened, and at eleven, 
finding it was impossible to make a breach in the walls with the 
howitzers, the colonel determined to storm the church, which was in 
the north-western angle of the town. Captain Burgwin led the attack. 
His party established themselves under the western wall of the 
church, and attempted to breach it with axes, while the roof was 
fired by the help of a temporary ladder. In this emergency, the gal- 
lant commander exposed himself fatally to the enemy. Captain 
Burgwin left the shelter afforded by the flank of the church, and pene- 
trating into the corral in front of that building, endeavoured to force 
the door. 

2q2 





462 ASSAULT OF PUEBLO BE TAOS. 

URGWIN, in this daring effort, received a 
wound which caused his death on the 
7th February. Several other officers had 
accompanied him to the church door, but 
they were not able to force it, and there- 
fore retired behind the wall; while they 
had been thus engaged, some small holes 
had been cut in the wall, and shells were thrown in by hand, doing 
good execution. A six-pounder was now brought around by Lieu- 
tenant Wilson, who poured a heavy fire of grape into the town from 
the distance of six hundred yards. The enemy had maintained a 
steady and heavy fire upon our troops during the whole fight. At 
half past three, ten rounds of grape were fired within sixty yards, into 
the holes that had been cut in the church wall with the axes, and a 
practicable breach was thus made. The gun was then run up to ten 
yards' distance, a shell was fired, and three more rounds of grape fol- 
lowed. Lieutenants Dyer, Wilson, and Taylor then entered and 
took possession of the church, feeling for the foe in the smoke which 
filled it. The capture of the town was then speedily effected. Many 
of the enemy endeavoured to escape towards the mountains, but w T ere 
intercepted by Captains Slack and St. Vrain, who killed fifty-one of 
them. They then sued for peace, and to obtain it gave up towns, the 
Indians who had been concerned in the murder of Governor Bent, 
and much of the property of the murdered Americans. The people 
of Moro, a town on the east side of the mountains, had risen on the 
19th of January, and massacred eight Americans residing there. 
Captain Henley being near the town at the time, attempted to take 
it, but was repulsed with the loss of his life. Captain Morin rein- 
forced the assailants, and took and burned the town. The Indians 
begged for peace, giving up those who had excited them to hostilities. 
The active participants in the rebellion were tried, and many who 
were convicted and condemned were promptly executed. For his 
zeal and gallantry in these movements, Colonel Price was rewarded 
by promotion to the rank of brigadier-general. 

The Camanche, Anapaho, and Kiawa tribes of Indians, with others 
inhabiting the country from Missouri to Sante Fe and California, kept 
up such a series of hostilities and outrages, that it was found neces- 
sary to send a battalion of troops thither, under Colonel Gilpin. That 
energetic officer speedily succeeded by his judicious measures and 
his great activity, in bringing the country into quietness and order, 
and the Sante Fe trader and the government trains pass unmolested. 
Many of the Indians have fled to a distance from the route, and we 
may reasonably expect soon to see this region of country under 



GOLD REGIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 463 

the safe guardianship of the hardy western pioneer and his trusty 
rifle.* 

* The glowing accounts of California, published by all who had visited it, and of which 
we attempted to give some idea in the first pages of this chapter, afforded ample ground 
for the opinion that the country would be rapidly filled up by emigrants from the United 
States. Since those pages were written, there has been added to the very many advantages 
of the country, there enumerated, one which throws them all into the shade ; and which 
of itself would be sufficient in this money-getting age, to populate a desert. Scarcely had 
the treaty been completed by which California was ceded to the United States, when the 
enterprising, observant, inquisitive Yankee settlers discovered that the country from the 
Ajuba to the San Joaquim rivers, a distance of about one hundred and twenty miles, and 
from the base towards the summit of the mountains, for a distance of seventy miles, was 
a mine of gold. 

It is said that gold mines were discovered in California by the Jesuits, about the middle 
of the last century. The Jesuits concealed their discovery from the government, and the 
suspicion that they had done so perhaps had something to do with their expulsion from 
Mexico. In 1769, Don Jose Galvez, Marquis of Sonora, undertook an expedition into 
California to ascertain the truth of the reports respecting the gold « in the rivers, in the 
soil, and in the rocks." He was accompanied by the celebrated Don Miguel Jose de 
Arenza, who, discouraged by the fruitless search of a few weeks, recommended the aban- 
donment of the enterprise ; and for contending that the marquis was insane for proceed- 
ing, was thrown into prison, where he remained several months. Nothing at all satisfac- 
tory, however, appears to have resulted from the search of Galvez, though the Jesuits 
afterwards disclosed, in Spain and France, that the charges of discovery and concealment, 
made against them, were true. 

Thus the matter rested until the new discovery by the Americans in the commencement 
of the year 1848, since which time every day has disclosed some new deposit. It has been 
found in large quantities on the Sacramento, Feather river, Yerba river, the American 
Fork, north and south branches, the Cosamir, and in many dry ravines, and on the tops 
of high hills. On the streams where the gold has been subjected to the action of water 
and sand, it is found in fine grains ; on the hills and among the clefts of the rocks, it is 
found in rough, jagged pieces, of a quarter or half an ounce in weight, and sometimes two 
or three ounces. 

The manner in which it has hitherto been collected is extremely wasteful, yet the yield 
has been enormous. A variety of means are used for obtaining it, a few of which we give 
from a letter of the Rev. Walter Colton, alcalde of Monterey. « Some wash it out of the 
sand with bowls, some with a machine like a cradle, only longer and open at the foot, 
while at the other end, instead of a squalling infant, there is a grating upon which the 
earth is thrown, and then water ; both pass through the grating, the cradle is rocked, and 
being on an inclined plane, the water carries off the earth, and the gold is deposited in the 
bottom of the cradle. So the two things most prized in this world — gold and infant 
beauty, are both rocked out of their primitive state, one to pamper pride, and the other to 
pamper the worm. Some forego cradles and bowls as too tame an occupation, and, 
mounted on horses, half-wild, dash up the mountain gorges, and over the steep hill, pick- 
ing the gold from the clefts of the rocks with their bowie knives — a much better use to 
make of these instruments than picking the life out of men's bodies. Monterey, San Fran- 
cisco, Sonoma, San Jose, and Santa Cruz are emptied of their male population. A 
stranger coming there would suppose he had arrived among a race of women. But not 
a few of the women have gone too, especially those who had got out of tea ; for what is 
woman without her tea-pot — a Pythoness without her shaking tripod — an angel that has 
lost his lyre. Every bowl, tray, warming-pan, and piggin has gone to the mines. Every 
thing, in short, that has a scoop in it, that will hold sand and water. All the iron has been 
worked up into crowbars, pickaxes, and spades. Over a million of gold is taken from the 
mines every month ; and this amount was expected to be more than doubled when the 
emigration from the states, the Sandwich Islands, Oregon, and the southern republics 
should arrive. 

The amount collected by each man ranges from ten dollars to three hundred dollars 
daily. The publisher of " The Californian" newspaper states that on a tour to the mining 
district, with the aid of a shovel, pick, and tin pan, twenty inches in diameter, he collected 
from forty-four to one hundred and twenty-eight dollars a day, averaging about one hun- 



464 GOLD REGIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 

dred dollars. Previous to the discovery of the gold wages of labour ranged from one to 
three dollars per day ; but the workingmen all became gold-hunters, and common labour 
could not be had for less than fifty cents per hour, while carpenters and other mechanics 
refused the offer of fifteen dollars per day for work. Whalers and trading-vessels coming 
into the Bay of San Francisco lost all their crews by desertion. The volunteer regiment 
of U. S. soldiers was mustered out of the service, and all of them went gold-hunting. 
Much sickness prevailed among those engaged in the work, but the number was con- 
stantly increasing, and at the latest accounts, large numbers were providing themselves 
with an outfit for five or six months, intending, as they could not traverse the country be- 
tween the settlements and the mines during the rainy season, to spend that part of the 
year in the gold region. Mr. Larkin, formerly U. S. consul at Monterey, writes to Mr. 
Buchanan, that he passed two nights at a tent occupied by eight Americans, — two sailors, 
one clerk, two carpenters, and three daily workmen. They were in company, having two 
machines, each made from one hundred feet of boards, (worth there one hundred and fifty 
dollars, in Monterey fifteen dollars, being one day's work,) made similar to a child's cradle, 
ten feet long without the ends. On two evenings he saw these men bring to their tent 
the labours of the day. He supposes they made each fifty dollars per day. Their own 
calculation was two pounds of gold a day — four ounces to a man — sixty-four dollars. 

The effect upon property in San Francisco and Monterey was astonishing to its owners. 
Three-fourths of the houses were deserted, and many could be bought at the price of the 
ground lots. All business ceased, except perhaps, that of the blacksmiths, whose forges 
proved to be placers in themselves, in consequence of the great demand for shovels, picks, 
and similar articles. Soldiers, sailors, clerks, alcaldes, and justices, all abandoned their em- 
ployment, and resorted to the gold lands. Mr. Larkin states that he saw there a lawyer 
who was attorney-general of the king of the Sandwich Islands, the previous year, digging 
and washing out his ounce and a-half a day, while near him could be found most of his 
brethren of the long robe, working in the same occupation. 

Governor Mason's despatch to the government at Washington, accompanied by very 
valuable specimens of the gold obtained by this rude system of mining, confirms in all 
particulars, the accounts received by private letters. He states that the entire gold district, 
with the exception of a very few grants made by the Mexican authorities, is public land. 
The large extent of country, the character of the people engaged, and the small force at 
his command, made it impracticable to adopt any means to secure to the government rents 
or fees for the privilege of mining the gold, and he therefore resolved to let all work freely. 
Crime was very rare, and no thefts or robberies had been committed in the gold district. 
The gold received from Governor Mason and others has been assayed at the United States 
Mint, and by eminent chemists, and proves to have an average fineness equal to that of 
standard American coin. 

The route from the western states to California, via St. Louis and Santa Fe, we have 
had occasion to speak of in the preceding pages of this work, and the accounts given by 
Colonel Fremont and others who have travelled it, have been often repeated in public 
journals. From the Atlantic seaboard, the most usual passage to the coast of California 
has heretofore been by sailing vessels round Cape Horn. In order to shorten the time re- 
quired by this passage, many resort to the route across the isthmus of Panama. The 
passengers by this route are landed at Chagres, a town situated at the mouth of the river 
of that name, in the midst of a swamp, where logs have to be laid along the streets at all 
times, to enable the inhabitants to pass from one of their mud huts to another. Its cli- 
mate has long been famous as the very worst in the world, and travellers never stop there 
over night who can avoid it. The passage up the river is performed in canoes to Criices, 
or Gorgona, forty or fifty miles, and then by mules or horses to Panama, a distance 
of twenty-one miles. Panama is by no means a healthy city, but it is much safer for a 
foreigner to reside in than Chagres. Here the traveller embarks for San Francisco and 
the gold country. 




CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE SIEGE OF VERA CRUZ. 



ESIDES the three expeditions against Mexico, con- 
ducted by Generals Taylor, Wool, and Kearny, the 
United States government had designed another, 
which was to land at some point on the western part 
of the Gulf of Mexico, and proceed thence to the 
capital. The force employed was denominated the 
Army of Invasion, and was placed under the care of the general-in- 
chief of the American army, Major-General Scott. 

59 (465) 




66 



LOSS OF THE TRUXTUN. 




Tampico 



Preparatory to this movement a small squadron was placed in the 
gulf early in 1846, under the command of Commodore Conner. 
This officer, after assisting General Taylor during his operations on 
the Rio Grande, sailed in the direction of Tampico. On the 7th of 
August, he made an attempt on the town of Alvarado, but failed. 
On the 15th of the same month, the brig Truxtun, commanded by 
officer Carpender, ran aground on the bar of Tuspan. On the 17th 
she was abandoned by all the officers and men, except Lieutenant 
Hunter, with a boat's crew. The latter succeeded in regaining the 
squadron, but the others were captured by the enemy, and subse- 
quently exchanged for General La Vega, and his fellow prisoners. 
The Truxtun being utterly immovable was burnt. 

On the 15th of October, Commodore Conner made a second attack 
upon the town of Alvarado. His force was three steamers, three 
gun-boats, and two schooners. The first division crossed the bar 
and engaged with a Mexican battery of seven guns, placed at the 
entrance of the river. The second division, however, was prevented 
from crossing by the grounding of a steamer. The commodore find- 
ing it would be folly to proceed with the first division, withdrew his 
vessels and abandoned the attempt. 

On the 16th of October, Commodore Perry sailed from the squadron 



BURNING OF THE CREOLE. 



467 




Commodore Conner. 



to attack the town of Tabasco, having with him two steamers and 
seven schooners. Crossing the bar on the 23d, he took, without re- 
sistance, the small town of Frontera, capturing all the vessels in port, 
including two steamers. On the following day he commenced the 
ascent of the river leading to Tabasco. Reaching a fort which com- 
manded a difficult pass, he forced the enemy to evacuate it, and then 
spiked the guns ; and at noon on the 25th, all his vessels were an- 
chored in front of the town. After a slight engagement, it was 
spared at the earnest solicitation of the foreign merchants. In this 
expedition, Commodore Perry captured or destroyed all the vessels 
in the river, comprising two steamers and eleven sail of ships, and put 
a stop to a trade by which munitions were introduced from Yucatan 
to Mexico. On the 12th of November, Tampico surrendered to 
Commodore Conner without resistance. 

On the night of November 20, Lieutenant Parker, Midshipmen 
Rogers and Hynson, and six men, rowed in a small boat to the 
Mexican brig, Creole, and succeeded in burning her under the guns 



468 DESCRIPTION OF SAN JUAN DE ULLOA. 

of San Juan de Ulloa. So daring a feat reflects great credit on the 
lieutenant and his little company. 

These were the principal operations along the western gulf coast 
prior to the arrival of General Scott. It had been the ardent desire 
of that officer, from the beginning of the war, to take the field in 
person ; but his plan of operations being opposed by government, he 
was obliged to remain at Washington. Late in November, however, 
he received orders from President Polk to take charge of the force 
on the gulf coast. He set out immediately, and reached the seat of 
war, January 1, 1847. 

The first object of the campaign was the reduction of Vera Cruz, 
and the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa. The force assembled on the 
coast was inadequate to this undertaking, and General Scott found 
himself under the necessity of withdrawing part of the army of occu- 
pation from General Taylor. These troops reached him in February, 
augmenting his numbers to more than eleven thousand. 

During the same month, the Ondiaka vessel was wrecked near the 
Island of Lobos, having on board a regiment of Louisiana volunteers, 
commanded by Colonel De Russy. On reaching the island, they 
met a large force of the enemy, under General Cos, who imme- 
diately demanded their surrender. The colonel's party having no 
arms, resistance was impracticable ; but he artfully managed to delay 
an answer until night, at the same time drawing up his troops as if 
for battle. Then deserting his heavy baggage, he lighted camp fires, 
and under cover of the darkness marched rapidly for Tampico, which 
he gained without encountering opposition. 

Every thing was now ready for the movements preparatory to the 
attack upon the castle and the city. Before describing this, it may 
be proper to describe the strength of this celebrated fortress, and its 
capabilities for defensive warfare. Its construction was commenced 
in 1582, upon a bar or bank fronting Vera Cruz, at the distance of 
ten hundred and sixty two yards from the main land. The centre 
of the area, occupied by the fortress, is a small island renowned in 
Aztec mythology as the site of a temple, in which human victims 
were offered to the Sun. The exterior polygon facing the city, is 
three hundred yards long, and that defending the north channel more 
than two hundred. The walls are about five yards in thickness, con- 
structed of a species of soft coral, and faced on the exterior witn hard 
stone. It is supplied with water by seven cisterns, which will hold 
more than a thousand cubic feet of water. An officer of the Ameri- 
can army describes its strength at the time of the attack, in the fol- 
lowing language : — " There are at present mounted, nearly three 
hundred cannon, and wherever it has been possible to train a gun. 



RECONNOISSANCE BY SCOTT. 



469 




General Scott going on board the Commodore's Ship. 



upon the channel of approach, it is planted ; so that a fleet moving 
up to the attack, must be exposed to the concentrated fire of seventy 
cannon, over a distance of two miles before it can get into position 
to return a shot. The castle of San Juan is about three-eighths of a 
mile from the city, and is supported by a water battery at the north-west 
angle of the town, of fifty thirty-two and forty-two-pound guns, all of 
which would bear upon a squadron passing up from the moment it ar- 
rived within range until within musket-shot. The garrison at this time, 
is composed of two thousand men. In the event of an attack, they 
could, with the most perfect safety, retire within the casements (which 
are as impervious to shot as the sides of Mount Orizaba) until the 
ammunition of the assailing force was expended, when they would 
return to their guns and sweep the waters with the most terrific effect. 
The officer commanding the castle lately sent official word, that c if 
the commodore would bring his fleet up, he might fire until there 
was not a shot in the locker, and he would promise not to return a 
shot until he was done.' " 

Early in March the American army at Tampico embarked on board 
the gulf squadron, commanded by Commodore Conner. On the 7th 
the fleet reached Anton Lizardo, near Vera Cruz, when the general, 
accompanied by Conner, made a reconnoissance of the coast, and 
chose a portion of the beach west of Isle Sacrificios, as a suitable 
spot for landing. On the 9th this event took place. Although the 
anchorage here was extremely narrow, yet before daylight all neces- 
sary preparations had been completed. Each of the frigates received 
2R 



470 LANDING AT VERA CRUZ. 

on board between twenty-five and twenty-eight hundred men, with 
their arms and accoutrements, and the sloops and smaller vessels 
numbers in proportion. When all were on board, the squadron set 
sail. Each ship anchored in the small space allotted to her, without 
the slightest trouble, although the harbour was densely crowded. It 
was a scene of grand and stirring beauty rarely witnessed, even in 
war, unaccompanied by any of those melancholy circumstances 
which render the battle-field so horrible. 

While the men were being transferred from the ships to the surf- 
boats, the commodore directed the steamers Spitfire and Vixen, and 
five gun-boats, to form a line parallel with the beach, so as to cover 
the landing. From the lightness of their draught, these small vessels 
were enabled to take positions within good range of the shore. As 
the guns received their complements of troops, they assembled in a 
line abreast, between the fleet and the gun-boats, and when all were 
ready, they moved together, under the guidance of the officers of the 
squadron. The enemy offered no resistance, and thus more than four 
thousand men were thrown on shore together ; so that in a very short 
time the whole army had been landed, without the slightest accident. 
General Worth, commanding the first line of the army, had the satis- 
faction of forming his troops on the beach and neighbouring heights 
before sunset. He was followed, during the evening, by General 
Twiggs. 

The success attending the disembarkation is not more remarkable 
than the apathy displayed by the Mexican garrison during the land- 
ing. The sight of the Americans on shore aroused, however, their 
energies, and they began preparations for a suitable defence. Morales, 
the commandant, issued a proclamation, calling on soldiers and citi- 
zens to assist him in his efforts to put both city and castle in the best 
possible condition. 

On the day of landing, Commodore Conner permitted the marines 
of the squadron to join the army as part of the 3d regiment of artil- 
lery. Some days after they were further reinforced by Captains Ker 
and Thornton, and Colonel Harney, accompanied by a considerable 
body of men and many horses. 

On the 11th, General Scott received a request from Senor Don 
Afilass G. de Escalante, the Spanish consul at Vera Cruz, that the 
rights of Spanish residents might be respected during the siege, and 
in case of assault. In answer, the American commander acknow- 
ledged the relation between Spain and the United States, and pro- 
mised to conform to the request if possible ; but at the same time he 
mentioned the difficulty of discriminating between friend and foe, 
especially if the city should be stormed at night. With the answer, 



SIEGE OF VERA CRUZ 




Vera Cruz. 



the general sent a printed safeguard to the consul, and another, to be 
left in his care, for the British consul. Similar papers were addressed 
to the French and Prussian ministers. The time between this cor- 
respondence and the 22d was occupied in landing mortars, planting 
batteries, and investing the city. On that day General Scott sum- 
moned the city and castle to surrender, promising to the garrisons of 
both places the honours of war. The commandant replied, that he 
had prepared for a vigorous defence, and that it would ill become his 
character as a servant of the republic, to surrender his trust. 

On receiving this answer, General Sgott commenced his bombard- 
ment. Seven mortars opened from land, while the small vessels of 
the squadron approached near enough to the city to add their fire. 
All night the firing continued, the bombardment presenting a scene 
sublime and terrific. u Bombs," says an eye-witness, "were flying 
into Vera Cruz like hail. Sulphureous flashes, clouds of smoke, and 
the dull booms of heavy guns arose from the walls of the city in re- 
turn ; while ever and anon a red sheet of flame would leap from the 
great brass mortars of the castle, followed by a report which fairly 
made the earth tremble. * * * * A huge black cloud of smoke hung 
like a pall over the American army, completely concealing it from 
view ; the Mexicans had ceased firing in order to prevent our troops 
from directing their guns by the flashes from the walls ; but, having 



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(472) 



SIEGE OF VERA CRUZ. 473 

obtained the exact range before dark, the gunners continued their 
fire, every shell falling directly into the city. Suddenly a vivid, 
lightning-like flash would gleam for an instant upon the dense cloud 
of smoke over our lines, and then, as the roar of the great mortar 
was borne to our ears, the ponderous shell would be seen to dart 
upward like a meteor, and after describing a semicircle in the air, 
descend with a loud crash upon the house-tops, or into the resound- 
ing streets. Then, after a brief but awful moment of suspense, a 
lurid glare, illuminating for an instant the white domes and grim 
fortresses of Vera Cruz, falling into ruins with the shock, and the 
echoing crash that came to our ears told that a shell had exploded, 
and executed its terrible mission." 

In the morning, the smaller vessels were withdrawn, on account 
of their exposed situation. Three additional mortars were placed in 
battery, and the whole fire of the Americans was now concentrated 
upon the city with terrible effect. At the same time the guns of the 
castle were in full blaze ; but although shot and shell were flying in 
every direction, the American loss was only two men killed and four 
wounded. Among the former was the gallant and amiable Captain 
Vinton. On the same day, thirteen heavy guns arrived from Tam- 
pico, two of which were landed ; but a norther then set in with such 
violence, that communication with the fleet, and even the siege itself 
were suspended. During the night the storm abated, and early the 
next morning the fleet recommenced the landing of military stores. 
The firing continued at intervals the whole of this day, the naval bat- 
teries co-operating with the land forces. Towards evening, the 
ammunition became exhausted, and a reoccurrence of the norther 
prevented any active operations on the American side. During this 
cessation, General Scott received, from the foreign consuls of the city, 
a request that a truce might be granted to allow neutrals, and the 
Mexican women and children to leave the city. To this the general 
replied, that a truce could be granted only on an application of the 
governor, with a view to surrender ; that in sending safeguards to 
the different consuls, commencing as far back as the 15th instant, he 
had distinctly admonished them of subsequent dangers ; that although 
at that date he had refused to allow any person to pass the line of 
investment either way, yet up to the 22d, the blockade had been left 
open to the consuls and other neutrals to pass out to their respective 
ships of war. This answer contained a copy of the summons to the 
governor, showing that General Scott had considered the case of the 
women and children before the siege commenced. 

The destruction within the city was now so great, that the citizens 
implored the governor to surrender. This he refused to do. A council 
2r2 60 



474 



NEGOTIATIONS. 




Colonel Totten. 



of citizens and officers was then held, which requested him imme- 
diately to resign. This was complied with, and General Landero 
was appointed to succeed him. He sent overtures for a truce early 
on the 26th, and negotiations were carried on as actively as the stormy 
condition of the weather would permit. Generals Worth and Pillow, 
and Colonel Totten were appointed commissioners for the Americans ; 
and Pedro M. Herrera, Jose Gutierrez de Villanueva, and Manuel 
Robles, for the Mexicans. The fleet was not represented, on account 
of the impossibility of communication. 

When these officers met, the Mexican commissioners presented six 
propositions, asking to evacuate the city without hindrance ; to march 
out with the honours of war, and a full allowance of stores and field- 
pieces ; to salute their flag on its being struck ; to be assured that 
private property and the enjoyment of religious opinions would be 
respected ; that the guards of Vera Cruz should retire, unmolested, to 
their homes; and that, in case the siege continued, the neutrals be 
permitted to pass out. Most of these General Scott refused to grant, 
and negotiations recommenced. Captain Aulick now arrived from 
the fleet, and, at the request of General Scott, was admitted to the 



TERMS OF SURRENDER. 475 

conference. At length the commissioners agreed on the following 
terms : 

1 . The whole garrison, or garrisons, to be surrendered to the arms 
of the United States, as prisoners of war, the 29th instant, at ten 
o'clock, A. M. ; the garrisons to be permitted to march out with all 
the honours of war, and to lay down their arms to such officers as 
maybe appointed by the general-in-chief of the United States armies, 
and at a point to be agreed upon by the commissioners. 

2. Mexican officers shall preserve their arms and private effects, 
including horses and horse-furniture, and to be allowed, regular and 
irregular officers, as also the rank and file, five days to retire to their 
respective homes, on parole, as hereinafter prescribed. 

3. Coincident with the surrender, as stipulated in article 1, the 
Mexican flags of the various forts and stations shall be struck, saluted 
by their own batteries ; and, immediately thereafter, Forts Santiago 
and Conception, and the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, occupied by 
the forces of the United States. 

4. The rank and file of the regular portion of the prisoners to be 
disposed of after surrender and parole, as their general-in-chief may 
desire, and the irregular to be permitted to return to their homes. 
The officers, in respect to all arms and descriptions of force, giving 
the usual parole, that the said rank and file, as well as themselves, 
shall not serve again until duly exchanged. 

5. All the materiel of war, and all public property of every de- 
scription found in the city, the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, and their 
dependencies, to belong to the United States ; but the armament of 
the same (not injured or destroyed in the farther prosecution of the 
actual war) may be considered as liable to be restored to Mexico by 
a definite treaty of peace. 

6. The sick and wounded Mexicans to be allowed to remain in 
the city, with such medical officers and attendants, and officers of the 
army, as may be necessary to their care and treatment. 

7. Absolute protection is solemnly guarantied to persons in the 
city, and property, and it is clearly understood that no private build- 
ing or property is to be taken or used by the forces of the United 
States, without previous arrangement with the owners, and for a fair 
equivalent. 

8. Absolute freedom of religious worship and ceremonies is 
solemnly guarantied. 

During the siege, Colonel Harney, of the dragoons, had a severe 
skirmish with a large body of Mexican cavalry, stationed outside the 
city. Without knowing the exact force of the enemy, he set out in 
pursuit of them with one hundred and twenty of his men. When 



476 



HARNEY S DRAGOON FIGHT. 




Colonel Harney's Dragoon Fight 



three miles from General Patterson's head-quarters, he discovered 
them intrenched near a bridge, and stationed himself so as to watch 
their movements, while his own men were secure. The Mexicans 
soon perceived him, and opened their fire. Finding his force too 
small to cope with them, Harney despatched a messenger to camp 
for a reinforcement and artillery to break their breastworks. General 
Patterson sent him sixty dragoons, and infantry and artillery sufficient 
to swell his force to more than five hundred. 

Colonel Harney then formed the Tennessee volunteers on the right, 
the dragoons on the left, and advanced slowly to draw the Mexican 
fire, covering his artillery until it could reach a desirable station. On 
arriving within one hundred and fifty yards of the works, the artillery 
opened, and soon after the colonel ordered a charge. This was 
executed with such impetuosity, that the enemy were routed on 
every side, and pursued for more than a mile. Here the Americans 
met the main body of lancers, drawn up in line of battle, and, not- 
withstanding the disparity in numbers, were ordered to charge. 
After sweeping unscathed through a volley of pistol-shot, they broke 
headlong among the lancers. Numbers sunk down under the first 
shock, and then the heavy dragoon met the high spirited lancer hand 
to hand in mortal fray. For awhile the spectacle was most exciting; 
but it closed over the Mexicans in rout and disorder. Horses were 
crushed to earth, their riders unsaddled, lances twisted from their 
hold, and the main body of the enemy driven in every direction 
The Americans lost two killed and nine wounded; the enemy. 



MEXICANS EVACUATE VERA CRUZ. 477 














nearly one hundred. Their total force was supposed to number two 
thousand. 

On the 29th of March, the Mexicans evacuated both city and cas- 
tle, marching to an open plain behind the city, stacking their arms, 
and then proceeding towards the interior. Women and children 
accompanied them, bearing heavy burdens, and exhibiting the melan- 
choly consequences of the assault. After their flag was struck, the 
Americans entered the city amid the strains of national music, the 
shouts of the overjoyed soldiery, and the loud booming of cannon 



478 



CAPTURE OF ALVARADO. 



from both fleet and castle. General Twiggs was appointed governor, 
and soon restored quiet and confidence. An immense quantity of 
guns, ammunition, and other military stores were captured. 

Ever keeping in mind the instructions of government — to conquer 
a peace — General Scott used every effort to conciliate the Mexican 
population, and convince them that so far from entertaining hostile 
feelings towards them, the American government regarded them in a 
spirit of amity and forbearance. A proclamation was issued, solemnly 
promising them protection in the enjoyment and exercise of all their 
rights, social and religious ; while at the same time they were ex- 
horted to remain neutral, and avoid every thing which might foster a 
spirit of distrust and retaliation between themselves and the Ameri- 
can soldiers. 

A few days before the commencement of the assault upon Vera 
Cruz, Commodore Conner had been superseded in the command of 
the gulf squadron by Commodore Perry, who had charge of the fleet 
during the whole siege. On the 21st of March a detachment, under 
Lieutenant Hunter, appeared before the town of Alvarado and de- 
manded its surrender. This was complied with, and thus the place 
which had been a desired object to the Americans for nearly a year, 
was attained without bloodshed. Hunter was subsequently called to 
account for exceeding his orders, and after being severely repri- 
manded by the commodore, was dismissed from the squadron ; but, 
on reporting himself at Washington, he was ordered on other duty. 

News of the taking of Vera Cruz was received in the United States 
with the wildest demonstrations of joy. Thanks and tokens of esteem 
were voted to Scott and his army, and public illuminations were held 
in most of the great cities. It was indeed a great feat, that, with the 
loss of only a few men killed and wounded, our troops should subdue 
a fortress, considered by all the world as impregnable. 





CHAPTER XXV. 



MARCH TOWARDS THE CAPITAL, AND BATTLE OF CERRO GORDO. 



HE American army remained at 
Vera Cruz until the 8th of April, 
when General Twiggs, with his 
division, marched for the interior. 
Other divisions followed in regular 
order. At the close of the third 
day, the van reached the foot of the 
great mountain range in sight of 
Orizaba, and the tall peaks that 
look up towards it. Through the 
rocky defiles of this stupendous 
chain, the great national road winds 
towards the city of Mexico ; and 
on the precipitous cliffs command- 
ing it was posted, in strong intrench- 

ments, the Mexican army, numbering eleven thousand, and com 

manded by Santa Anna. 

This officer, after his repulse at Buena Vista, had succeeded in 

(479) 




480 



SANTA ANNA AT CERRO GORDO 




General Twiggs. 



raising and equipping another army, -with which he hoped to check 
the advance of the Americans. He chose a position which entirely 
commanded the road, and where he hoped that the nature of the 
ground, and the bravery of his soldiers, would enable him to defeat 
General Scott, and redeem what had been lost at Angostura and 
Vera Cruz. 

On ascertaining the vicinity of the enemy, General Scott resolved 
to reconnoiter his position daily, so as to open a road in their rear, 
which would enable him to attack them at two points simultaneously. 
This most difficult design was executed as far as the height of Cerro 
Gordo, the key of the enemy's position, when it became evident that 
farther advance in that direction was impossible, without a battle. 
The general therefore made the requisite preparations for an attack, 
and on the 17th issued his celebrated order, in which, with prophetic 
accuracy, he detailed each movement of both armies, as well as the 
line of pursuit. In the evening of that day, Twiggs's division was 
thrown into position, and, while the advance parties were working 
upon the road, they were fired upon with grape and musketry. A 
rather severe skirmish ensued, which lasted until Colonel Harney 



DESCRIPTION OF CERRO GORDO. 



481 




General Pillow. 



came into action, with a body of riflemen, and drove in the Mex- 
ican pickets. A height near Cerro Gordo was then secured, and 
a battery of one twenty-four-pounder and two howitzers placed 
upon it. 

The battle ground of Cerro Gordo is bounded on the south by the 
Plan del Rio, a small stream running at this place directly east and 
west. On each side of this narrow channel, a steep mountain wall 
rises to the height of one thousand feet, and then spreads out towards 
the north in table-land, divided into two portions by a chain of rocky 
hills running from north to south. On the west, this high surface 
descends abruptly into a long, narrow valley, from which, on the 
opposite side, rises the commanding mount of Cerro Gordo, situated 
a little north of the Plan del Rio, and west of the plateau of table- 
land. The national road crosses the stream at a small gorge, and 
winding along the eastern side of the table-land, turns to the west, 
bounding the northern portion until it enters the narrow valley be- 
tween the table-land and Cerro Gordo. It runs through this, and 
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482 



BATTLE OF CERRO GORDO. 483 

turning southward, sweeps round the foot of that position, and then 
runs west towards Jalapa. West of Cerro Gordo was another strong 
height, also commanding the road ; and north of it a third, on which 
the Americans planted a heavy battery during the night of the 23d. 

Cerro Gordo was defended by a tower and numerous works, and 
the road leading up the hill to it was at least half a mile in length. 
An assailing force marching up this road would be exposed to the 
full range of the enemy's cannon throughout its whole extent. Here 
Santa Anna had posted his main force of more than six thousand 
men, whom he commanded in person. The height to the west was 
also occupied with a large force. But the new road cut by the 
Americans north of these hills, and ascending them by a precipitous 
rise, where cannon could not well operate upon an assailing force, 
saved General Scott's army from the terrible slaughter which would 
have attended a direct attack upon the front or south side. The 
storming of this main point of Santa Anna's position was intrusted to 
the division of General Twiggs. The strong points of the plateau, 
together with the ridge of hills running north and south, were de- 
fended by General La Vega, with more than two thousand men. 
This was the position attacked by General Pillow, and so gallantly 
defended by its garrison. The hill west of Cerro Gordo was attacked 
by the 2d infantry. Shields's brigade was stationed west of it, and 
on the Jalapa road, in order to cut off the enemy's retreat. 

On the night of the 17th, a thousand men were sent from Twiggs's 
division to erect a battery upon the height north of Cerro Gordo, 
which had been captured during the evening's skirmish. This as 
has been mentioned above, consisted of a twenty-four-pounder and 
two howitzers. This duty was one of difficulty and danger. The 
soldiers were worn out through long marching, the height was steep, 
rocky, and several hundred feet high, the night singularly dark, and 
the pieces so heavy as to be almost unmanageable. The detachment 
was divided into two sections, each of which dragged up the pieces 
alternately. Then the troops locked the wheels and sunk exhausted on 
the rocks, while their comrades advanced to relieve them. At three 
o'clock A. M. of the 18th, the battery was in a position to open on 
the enemy. 

Before daylight, the entire division of Twiggs was roused to storm 
the height. As the loud cannon opened on each side, Shields hur- 
ried on against the fort to the west, so as to carry it and gain the 
Jalapa road. As light gradually spread among the mountains, the 
long lines of American soldiery could be seen clambering up the 
precipitous ascent, in direct route for the main height. Colonel Har- 
ney, assisted by Colonel Childs, led the assault, while the comman- 



484 



BATTLE OF CERRO GORDO. 




General Twiggs at Cerro Gordo. 



der-in-chief fixed his anxious eye upon the movement. Although 
for some time protected by the steep ledges, the assailants came at 
length within range of the opposing fire, and the front ranks melted 
away before its withering showers. Thundering tones shook all the 
mountain heights, echoing and breaking among the gorges, with ter- 
rific grandeur ; while answering them went up the shouts of man and 
officer, the firm, clear words of command, and the quick clashing of 
arms. The gallant Harney, regardless of personal danger, cheered 
on his men, rushing along their front, through showers of death that 
rained on every side. Animated by his voice and example, the 
troops breasted the murderous storm, reached the parapet and leaped 
over among their enemies. Then the cannon ceased, and there 
were a few moments of terrible silence, succeeded by the ringing of 
bayonets, and the groans of the dying. The struggle was short. 
Dismayed by the impetuous charge, the enemy either threw down 
their arms or broke and fled down the southern ascent to the main 
road. Generals Santa Anna, Canalizo, and Almonte, escaped to 
Jalapa. Twiggs's division, headed by Harney and Childs, continued 
in close pursuit of the fugitives, until late in the afternoon. 

So conspicuous was the conduct of Colonel Harney, during the 
whole of this terrible charge, that immediately after the enemy's 
works had been carried, and while all around was confusion and wild 
pursuit, General Scott rode up to the colonel and exclaimed, " Colo- 
nel Harney, I cannot now adequately express my admiration of your 
gallant achievement, but I shall take pleasure in soon thanking you 



BATTLE OF CERRO GORDO. 



487 




General Shields wounded. 



in proper terms." With characteristic modesty, Harney replied that 
the praise was due less to himself than to his officers and men. 

Meanwhile General Shields, with his volunteers, had stormed and 
carried the height to the west, and marching down rapidly into the 
road, cut off the retreat of the fugitives from Cerro Gordo. In the 
commencement of the action, the general was paralyzed by a musket- 
ball which passed through his lungs. Colonel Baker then took com- 
mand of his division, and conducted the pursuit. 

At the same time General Pillow had attacked the strong positions 
of the enemy, situated on the plateau. General La Vega received 
him with a galling fire, but without being able to check his advance. 
The column was led by Haskell's regiment of Tennessee volunteers, 
followed by the other regiments of the brigade. When near La 
Vega's position, the advance suddenly received a heavy fire from a 
masked battery, which drove it back with great loss. Pillow restored 
his line and again ordered it forward. The troops advanced with 
spirit; but the Mexicans, animated by their former success, poured 
forth so terrible a discharge from all their batteries, that they again 
drove back the assailants. At this time the American flag was ob- 
served on Cerro Gordo, and judging it useless to resist further, Ge- 
neral La Vega surrendered. The force of the Americans at Cerro 
Gordo was about eight thousand five hundred ; their loss was thirty- 
three officers and three hundred and ninety eight men — total four 



488 



BATTLE OF CERRO GORDO. 




hundred and eighty-three ; of whom sixty-three were killed. The 
loss of the enemy in killed and wounded was never known, but 
during the battle it no doubt equalled that of their antagonists, and 
in the retreat was greatly augmented by the slaughter committed 
among the fugitives by Harney's dragoons. The amount of ammu- 
nition, arms, military stores, and prisoners captured was so great, 
that in General Scott's language, the victors were " embarrassed with 
the results of victory, — prisoners of war," says the commander, 
" heavy ordnance, field batteries, small arms, and accoutrements. 
About three thousand men laid down their arms, with the usual pro- 
portion of field and company officers, besides five generals, several 
of them of great distinction, — Pinzon, Jarrero, La Vega, Noriaga, and 
Abando. A sixth general, Vasquez, was killed in defending the bat- 
tery (tower) in the rear of the whole Mexican army, the capture oi 
which gave us those glorious results." 

As the great number of prisoners was an insupportable burden to 
the army, General Scott released them all on parole, except a few 



TWIGGS ENTERS JALAPA. 



489 




Colonel Hitchcock. 



officers, who chose to remain under the good treatment of the Ame- 
rican government. All the private effects were restored to their 
owners, and the small arms and some ammunition destroyed. The 
duty of receiving the paroles of the Mexican officers was intrusted to 
Colonel Hitchcock, inspector-general of the army, who also furnished 
provisions for the prisoners. 

On the same day that the victory of Cerro Gordo was achieved, 
the town of Tuspan was captured with but slight resistance by a por- 
tion of the gulf squadron. On the following day Twiggs entered 
Jalapa, in pursuit of the flying enemy. On the same day and the 
following, the Mexicans abandoned the strong post of La Hoya; and 
on the 22d, General Worth entered the strong town and castle of 
Perote. This fortress is one of the most formidable in Mexico. It 
contained fifty-four pieces of cannon, bronze and iron mortars, eleven 
thousand cannon balls, fourteen thousand bombs, and five hundred 
muskets, all of which fell into the hands of the Americans. 

On the 15th of May, General Worth approached the city of Puebla. 
He was met by a party of lancers, supposed to be led by Santa 

62 



490 



SKIRMISH WITH LANCERS. 



Anna, with whom a skirmish ensued, in the plains of Amasoca. 
After losing a few men, the enemy retreated, and were driven into 
the streets of Puebla, where they separated and escaped. 

The city of Puebla is among the largest in Mexico, containing a 
population of eighty thousand souls. It is celebrated for its splendid 
cathedral — probably the most costly building in America — its nume- 
rous churches and priests, the beauty of its public buildings, the 
general good appearance of its streets and houses, its numerous places 
of amusement, and the richness of the surrounding scenery. 

Thus in less than two months, General Scott and his army had 
captured three large cities, two castles, ten thousand men, more than 
seven hundred cannon, mostly new, and an immense quantity of 
shells, shot, and small arms. For rapidity of execution, these 
achievements have scarcely a parallel, except in Napoleon's first 
Italian campaign. 




Capture of Tuspan. 




CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE GUERRILLA WARFARE. 




FTER the fall of Vera Cruz, the 
Mexican government author- 
ized the organization of small 
bands of citizens and villagers, 
armed and mounted. They were 
termed " guerrilla parties," 
and being composed mostly of 
outlaws and robbers — the dregs 
of the population — they entered 
upon the campaign with the 
avowed determination to ex- 
tend no quarter to any who 
might fall into their hands, but to rob and murder as often as occa- 
sion offered. Spreading themselves over the country through which 
the route of the Americans extended, they seized the mountain fast- 
nesses and strong passes, attacked scouting parties, intercepted 
communications, and even entered garrisoned cities at night, and 
murdered all American stragglers within their reach. Some of their 
attempts were so daring and serious, as to be deserving of particular 
record. 

Early in May, a party of infantry were attacked near the National 
Bridge, and obliged to fall back upon their wagon train. Here they 
rallied, and charged on the guerrillas, who were dispersed with con- 
2 T (493) 



494 



GUERRILLA WARFARE. 




National Bridge. 



siderable loss. One American was killed. On the same day, no 
less than twenty-one bodies were found on the road, of those who 
had been murdered by the rancheros. Not long after, some unknown 
persons of General Taylor's army entered a rancho near Seralvo, and 
hung nearly forty Mexicans. Generals Taylor and Wool made the 
most strenuous exertion c i discover the perpetrators of this outrage, 
but without success. On receiving news of the murder, General 
Canales issued a proclamation declaring the whole eastern country 
under martial law, and that no quarter should be extended to any 
American. 

On the 22d of May, Colonel Sowers reached Vera Cruz with de- 
spatches from General Scott, then approaching Puebla. On the same 
day, with an escort of five men and Lieutenant McDonnell, he set 
out for Santa Fe, hoping to find Captain Wheat there, from whom he 
expected further reinforcements. Being disappointed, he set out with 
two additional men, but was attacked on the road by the guerrillas, 
and himself and six men murdered. The survivor escaped to carry 
the sad news to Vera Cruz. About the same time, Captain Walker, 
with eight hundred mtn, while escorting a wagon train, was attacked 
by two hundred rancheros, whom he charged, capturing six, killing 
ten, and pursuing the remainder as far as the darkness of night would 
admit. The 2d dragoons, who accompanied Walker, had six killed 



ATTACK ON COLONEL MCINTOSH. 



495 




Mexican Cavalry menacing a train of Wagons. 



and eleven wounded, a loss which induced them to shoot tne prison- 
ers taken by Walker. 

On the night of June 4th, eight hundred men, under Colonel 
Mcintosh, started from Vera Cruz for Puebla, with a train of one 
hundred and fifty wagons, and six hundred mules. He had with 
him two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars in specie. On 
Sunday, the 6th of June, the advance guard, consisting of Captain 
Ford's Indiana dragoons, was suddenly attacked by a large body of 
Mexicans, who killed two and wounded five or six others. This 
threw the American front into confusion, and enabled the enemy to 
follow up their success by capturing several horses and a large quan- 
tity of baggage. The troops were just recovering from this unex- 
pected assault, when in about half an hour the rear of the train was 
attacked, and before the guard, who were unfortunately too far be- 
hind, could get up, they had lost a large number of pack mules, and 
several wagons were robbed of their contents. The assailants then 
retired into the neighbouring chaparral, where it was impossible to 
pursue them. 

The train was now arranged in order, the mounted dragoons 
placed as a rear guard, and the whole again moved forward. At 
sunset they reached a low part of the road, bordered on the left by 
an open chaparral, and on the right by a field, set with thickets, and 
commanded on the farther end by a small fort situated on a hill. 
The stillness of this lonely spot was suddenly broken by heavy dis- 
charges of musketry, while from the fort, the hill in its rear, and the 



496 



ATTACK ON COLONEL MCINTOSH. 




rows of chaparral, blazed forth sheets of blinding flame. Although 
the Americans were mostly raw recruits, they received the enemy's 
fire with coolness, and poured forth in return a volley from their 
rifles. After this had continued for some minutes, they charged upon 
the chaparral in rear of the adjoining field, and after a short but ex- 
citing struggle, silenced the Mexicans' fire, and drove them from the 
thicket. At the same time, the dragoons rushed down upon the fort 
on the hill, entered it amid loud shouts, and compelled the garrison 
to fly in confusion over the neighbouring heights. 

HROUGHOUT the whole of this affair 
the Mexicans behaved with more than 
usual skill and bravery. During the 
confusion incident to the first attack, 
they avoided the American troops as 
much as possible, and fell upon the 
wagons and mules, which extended 
over a distance of four miles, and hav- 
ing the guard of four hundred men 
weakened by extension. They were 
thus enabled to capture twenty-eight 
wagons, and nearly two hundred pack 
mules. The loss of the Americans during this week, in specie alone, 
was more than fifty thousand dollars. Thirty men were killed. Colo- 
nel Mcintosh halted at Paso de Obijas, and despatched a courier to 
General Cadwalader, at Vera Cruz, for supplies. 

This action encouraged the guerrillas to such an extent that they 
spread themselves between Vera Cruz and General Scott's head-quar- 
ters, cut off the communication, and occupied all the strong positions 
in the vicinity. Strong bodies entered Vera Cruz at night, and drove 
off numbers of horses : scouting parties were attacked, and sometimes 
murdered ; while it became almost impossible to travel with a train 
without its being accompanied by a large escort. 

On the 8th, a small recruiting party of Americans, with some citi- 
zens and disbanded soldiers, numbering in all one hundred and fifty, 
left Puebla for Vera Cruz. It was conducted by Captain Bainbridge, 
of the 3d artillery. On approaching Cerro Gordo, two officers were 
fired upon from the chaparral in the rear of the train, and soon after 
the captain was informed that the pass was guarded by four thousand 
Mexicans. After halting at the mouth of the pass, and organizing, 
the party passed through without meeting the enemy, and arrived 
that evening at the National Bridge. The troops were now so much 
fatigued as to be unable to furnish a guard ; but, while preparing to 
bivouac, they received information that some persons were barri- 



DRAGOONS ATTACKING THE GUERRILLAS. 497 



cading the bridge. About the same time signal lights were distinctly 
observed on the ridges and cliffs near Cerro Gordo. In order to pre- 
vent surprise, a few men were placed between the bridge and the 
encampment, but no attempt was made on them during the night. 

Before daylight the sick and wounded were removed to a place 
of safety, and two parties despatched towards the bridge, one of 
which cleared it without meeting the enemy. These were followed 
soon after by the main body. Every thing appearing safe, Lieutenant 
McWilliams and a Mr. Frazer were sent to bring the train across the 
bridge. While on their way, they were fired at by about twenty-five 
Mexicans, posted on a ridge. The wagon-master and four others 
were killed, and a wagon captured. Immediately after a party of 
lancers appeared on the bridge, and prepared for a charge ; but on per- 
ceiving that Captain Bainbridge's party were ready to receive them, 
they hastily retired. Placing his troops in order, the captain resumed 
his march, followed by several hundred lancers, who hung upon his 
rear and flanks until he arrived at the pass, where Colonel Mcintosh 
was awaiting reinforcements. The Mexicans were a portion of the 
same party that had attacked the colonel and cut off his train, and 
during the whole night they kept up a continual fire upon the camp, 
often approaching very near to the American sentinels. 

N the following day Bainbridge's party 
resumed its march to Vera Cruz, in 
company with Captain Duperu's dra- 
goons, who returned to obtain theii 
horses. It had been owing to the 
bravery of this company that Mcin- 
tosh's command was not entirely cut 
off or dispersed during the fierce attack 
of the lancers. On arriving at Santa 
Fe, the dragoons halted, in order to 
protect a large return train, at thai 
time threatened ; and meanwhile Cap- 
tain Bainbridge pushed on to Vera 
Cruz, where he arrived in safety. The 
threatened assault upon Duperu's com- 
mand was made ; but, although the enemy were greatly superior, he 
succeeded in driving them back with loss, and arrived safely at Vera 
Cruz. 

On the day that Captain Bainbridge's command left Mcintosh's 

camp, General Cadwalader reached it with eight hundred men, and 

two howitzers. The two commands, numbering about one thousand 

men, were then joined, and moved forward towards the National 

2t2 63 




498 CADWALADER DEFEATS THE GUERRILLAS. 




Captain Duperu's Dragoons attacking the Guerrillas. 



Bridge. He led his troops over the commanding heights from which 
the enemy had made their attack, so as to be on even ground with 
the Mexicans in case of a second assault. The Americans were not 
long in suspense. A heavy fire from all the neighbouring ridges and 
chaparral, soon announced that a large force had collected to dis- 
pute his passage. The command was halted, and the two howitzers 
placed in a position to rake the thickets. A furious action ensued, 
which lasted several hours, and was terminated only by a charge into 
the chaparral. After a short struggle, the Mexicans retreated, leav- 
ing behind them, in killed and wounded, about one hundred men. 
The loss of the Americans was thirteen killed and between thirty and 
forty wounded. Cadwalader passed the bridge, and proceeded on 
his way to Jalapa. 

Colonel De Russy, with one hundred and twenty-eight men, was 
sent, on the 7th of July, from Tampico, by Colonel Gates, com- 
mandant at that place, to Huejutla, to ask of the Mexican general, 
Garay, the liberation of some prisoners of war entitled to release. 
On reaching a point eight miles from Tantayuca, and one mile from 
the Calabosa river, he met a Mexican Indian, from whom informa- 
tion was received that General Garay was in force at that river, and 
meditated an attack upon the party. Nearly at the same moment, 
shots were heard in advance, the Mexicans having fired upon and 
killed Captain Boyd, leader of the pioneer party, and six of his men. 



PIERCE DEFEATS THE GUERRILLAS. 



499 



The main body of the Americans then charged the enemy in three 
columns, driving them, from their left and right, to the opposite side 
of the river, where they formed in one body. In this position the 
battle continued for an hour, Captain Wyse gallantly serving the only 
piece belonging to the company, and acting with the greatest cool- 
ness throughout the whole engagement. The enemy were finally 
beaten off, and the Americans commenced their retreat toTantayuca. 
The Mexicans were now reinforced by numerous small parties of 
citizens and guerrillas, and a running fight ensued, which was main- 
tained until the Americans had regained their magazine — a distance 
of twelve miles. On arriving at Tantayuca they dispersed a force 
of the enemy stationed there, and entering the town, provided them- 
selves with arms and ammunition, and also stripped it of provisions 
and other stores. 

T nine o'clock in the evening, a 
summons for capitulation arrived 
from General Garay. The de- 
mand was refused ; but an agree- 
ment was made to meet the gene- 
ral in the plaza at ten o'clock. 
Captain Wyse repaired to the 
place at the time appointed, and 
waited until midnight without 
receiving any intelligence of the 
Mexican officer. 

At two o'clock on the morning 
of the 13th, the Americans left their camp, and marched for the 
Panuco road amid a heavy rain. At ten A.M., they were pursued 
by the Mexicans, and a running action commenced, and was con- 
tinued over a space of fifty miles. The loss of the Americans, during 
the whole affair, was fifteen killed, ten wounded, and three missing ; 
that of the enemy is unknown. In the latter end of June, eight of 
the prisoners confined by General Garay made their escape to the 
American quarters. 

In July, General Pierce left Vera Cruz to join Scott's army, having 
with him twenty-five hundred men, one hundred and fifty wagons, 
se\en hundred mules, and one million dollars in specie. At the 
National Bridge he was attacked by fourteen hundred Mexicans, and 
a severe battle ensued, which terminated in the defeat of the enemy. 
Their loss was one hundred and fifty — that of the Americans, thirty 
killed and wounded. After returning to Vera Cruz for artillery and 
reinforcements, the general marched forward, and reached Puebla on 
the 6th of August, one day previous to Scott's march upon the capital. 




500 



LALLY DEFEATS THE GUERRILLAS. 



On the 10th of August, a party of Americans, under Major Lally, 
was attacked near the National Bridge, by the guerrillas. The skir- 
mish was severe, the major being attacked in front and rear, and 
losing many men. He maintained his ground, however, with vigour, 
and finally drove off the enemy. A short time previous to this, an 
engagement had taken place between Captain Ruff's cavalry and the 
guerrillas, in which he was eminently victorious, not losing a man. 

These attacks of the guerrillas kept the region between Vera Cruz 
and Puebla in a state of constant alarm, and rendered travelling, ex- 
cept with a strong escort, in the highest degree dangerous. The 
most active and daring of these partisans was the celebrated Father 
Jarauta, a priest, who had organized most of the parties, and who 
seems to have been considered as their general leader. Vigilant ex- 
ertions were made to capture him by Captain Walker, and General 
Patterson, who was then stationed at Vera Cruz, but without success ; 
and, until the close of the war, he continued to arm and lead different 
bands, whose rapid and fearless movements rendered his name a 
terror in that neighbourhood. 





CHAPTER XXVII. 



MARCH TO THE CAPITAL, AND BATTLE OF CONTRERAS. 



"2^ /Ti ENERAL SCOTT, with the main por- 

v r L/' i^a^kx III tion of the army, remained at Puebla 

until early in August, when he pre- 
pared for a march upon the capital. 
A sufficient garrison was left in the 
city under Colonel Childs. On the 
7th, Twiggs's division, preceded by 
Harney's brigade of cavalry, moved 
for the capital ; and was followed, on 
the three succeeding days, by the di- 
visions of Quitman, Worth, and Pil- 
low, the corps being at no time more 
than five hours' march, or supporting 
distance, apart. On the first day, the troops entered a beautiful 
rolling country, of great fertility, covered with gardens, which sup- 

(501) 




502 MARCH TO THE CAPITAL. 

plied the inhabitants with food, and surrounded by lofty mountains, 
capped with snow. Among these Popocatapetl and Iscatapetl were 
so near as to render the morning and evening air quite chilly. The 
fields were covered with the beautiful maguey plant, through the 
rows of which, as the road gradually ascended, the long lines of sol- 
diers, followed by their immense baggage train, exhibited a noble 
spectacle. The second day's march ascended through denies, nar- 
row passes, and deep chasms, succeeded by thick woods of the finest 
forest trees, with here and there beautiful little lakes embosomed 
among quiet valleys, with their cool deep waters glittering in the 
southern sun. On the third day, the advance reached the strong 
pass of Rio Frio, where the enemy had been reported in force. At 
this place, the mountains which skirt the road on the left, close upon 
it for about a mile, overhanging and enfilading it completely, and 
affording excellent coverings for an enemy's marksmen. It was 
passed without meeting the enemy, and the troops commenced the 
ascent of the ridge, which separates the plains of Puebla from the 
valley of Mexico. After winding along this for several miles, a sud- 
den turn in the road brought the army within full sight of the vast 
plain of Mexico, in the centre of which lay the goal of ambition, the 
object of so many fatiguing marches, with its lofty cathedral, its 
checkered domes, its frowning walls, and bright embosoming lakes. 
The army passed the night in sight of the city. 

On the following day, the troops descended into the great valley 
or basin of Mexico, the different divisions approximating more closelv 
than they had done in any part of the march. The road ran through 
Lake Chalco and Xochimilco on the south, and Lake Tezcuco on the 
north. Close to the latter, and on the opposite side of the road, was 
the isolated mound, called El Penon, of great height, strongly forti- 
fied, by a triple row of works, and flooded around the base by sluices 
from the lakes, and heavy rains. It is eight miles from the capital, 
and commands the advance to it, from the east. A careful reconnois- 
sance of this place, made on the 13th and 14th, convinced Genera/ 
Scott that an attempt to carry it, even if successful, would be attended 
by great and disproportionate loss, and have a chilling effect upon 
the subsequent battles, anticipated before the city walls. This was 
confirmed by another reconnoissance upon Mexicalzingo, left of Penon, 
a village at a fortified bridge across the canal, leading from Lake 
Xochimilco to the capital. This could have been carried after mask- 
ing El Penon ; but on the other side of the bridge, the Americans 
would have found themselves on a narrow causeway four miles from 
the road flanked on the right and left by boggy grounds. 

These difficulties caused the general to abandon the idea of a direct 



MARCH TO THE CAPITAL. 



503 




City of Mexico, from the Convent of San Cosmo. 

march upon the city, and to avoid the eastern defences, by passing 
round the western and southern shores of Lakes Chalco and Xochi- 
milco, at the foot of the hills and mountains, so as to reach the vil- 
lage of San Augustin, and there conduct a reconnoissance upon the 
city. 

Accordingly, by a sudden retrograde movement, the army com- 
menced its march on the 18th, Worth's division, with Harney in ad- 
vance, composing the van. Twiggs's troops were left at Ayotla until 
next day, in order to threaten Penon and Mexicalzingo, so as to de- 
ceive the enemy as long as possible. The route lay over a field of 
lava, broken into rocks, chasms, and deep ravines, many of which, 
on account of the rainy season, were filled with water; but notwith- 
standing these difficulties, the advance under Worth reached San 
Aueustin on the 18th.* 



* The march of the American army around Lake Chalco must be regarded as one ot 
the most scientific operations of the war. Santa Anna had good reason to believe that 
such a step was impossible, and few generals besides the American commander would 
have attempted it. The reward was commensurate with the labour of achievement ; 
for besides its resulting in the subsequent glorious battles, it enabled our army to escape 
the terrible batteries of Penon and Mexicalzingo, the first of which mounted fifty-three 
guns, and the second, thirty-eight. General Scott, throughout the whole of this splendid 
campaign, exhibited all the characteristics of a most able commander-in-chief. All his 
dispositions for action were marked by the most consummate science and ability ; but in 
none did he display these qualities to greater advantage than in the arrangements for 
the final attack on the capital and its defences. 



504 



DEATH OF CAPTAIN THORNTON. 




WIGGS marched on the 16th from 
Ayotla towards Chalco, a small town 
situated on the lake, six miles from 
the road. Before reaching it he 
met a corps of cavalry and infantry, 
more than double his numbers, un- 
der command of General Valencia. 
The American general halted, formed 
in line, and opened upon them from 
Captain Taylor's field- battery, by 
which many of the cavalry were 
killed and wounded, and the remain- 
der dispersed. Except this skir- 
mish the army experienced no fur- 
ther molestation during the march, 
save from guerrillas on the heights. 

A little north of San Augustin, is the village of San Antonio, which 
had been strongly fortified by the enemy, with field-works, contain- 
ing heavy guns, and a numerous garrison. It could be turned only 
on the left by infantry, who would be obliged to advance over a field 
covered with volcanic rocks and lava. A careful reconnoissance 
evinced that the point could be approached only from the front over 
a narrow causeway, flanked with wet ditches of great depth. To- 
wards evening, while Captain Thornton with a small party were 
examining the works, a masked battery opened upon them, killed 
the captain and wounded his guide. 

On the same day a reconnoissance was commenced to the left of 
San Augustin, first over the different mounds^ and farther on over 
the same field of volcanic rocks and lava, which had been partially 
traversed in the route around Lake Chalco. This was continued on 
the 19th by Captain Lee, assisted by Lieutenants Beauregard and 
Tower. Other divisions coming up, Pillow's was advanced to make 
a practical road for heavy artillery, and Twiggs's thrown farther in 
front, to cover that operation. These movements resulted in the 
battle of Contreras. 

San Augustin, at which the American army was then stationed, is 
a small village, situated on the road leading from Southern Mexico 
to the capital, about ten miles from the latter. Being in the north of 
a broken volcanic valley, access to it is extremely difficult, and the 
movement of cavalry across it, impossible. On the rocks which 
border the wes f ern side of this valley, is the strong post of Contreras, 
which the Mexicans had fortified in the most careful manner, and 
furnished with a large garrison. About the same distance north of 



BATTLE OF CONTRERAS. 



505 




Death of Captain Thornton. 



San Augustin, and on the same road, is the fortress of Churubusco, 
also fortified in the strongest manner. West of this, and on the road 
leading to Contreras is San Angel, and east of it, near the northern 
extremity of Lake Xochimilco, San Pablo. These were the points 
of attack, during the great battles of August 19th and 20th. 

In conformity to the orders of the general-in-chief, General Twiggs 
left his wagon train at San Augustin on the morning of the 19th, and 
proceeded with his division across the mountain route reconnoitered 
by Captain Lee. On arriving within sight of Contreras, a rifle regi- 
ment, under Colonel Loring, was ordered forward as skirmishers, to 
clear the ground. This was done safely and with despatch. After 
the enemy's pickets had been driven in to within three hundred yards 
of their works, Captain Lee placed in position, Magruder's battery 
and the mountain howitzer and rocket battery of Lieutenant Callen- 
der. No sooner had this been done, than the Mexicans opened a 
heavy fire from several of their large guns. The Americans an- 
swered with both batteries, and for several hours a severe cannonade 
was maintained, which proved most destructive to Twiggs's troops. 
The gallant Lieutenant Johnstone, of Magruder's battery, was mor- 
tally wounded, and Lieutentant Callender, severely ; and so great 
was the loss of artillerymen and officers, that the batteries were at 
length withdrawn, and placed under shelter, General Smith's bri- 
gade was now ordered to advance along the American batteries, and 
gain a position in the enemy's rear, and turn the position of San An- 
tonio. The troops advanced over a field of lava, scarcely passable, 
even for single individuals, until they came within range of the Mexi- 
2U 64 



PLAN 



OF THE 

BATTLES OF CONTRERAS AND CHURUBUSCO. 

AUGUST 19 and 20, 1847. 



RILEY'S BRIGADE. 
CADWALADER'S BRIGADE. 
SMITH'S BRIGADE. 
SHIELDS'S BRIGADE. 
PIERCE'S BRIGADE. 
POSITION OF U. S. TROOPS 19lh 

MAGRUDER'S BATTERY. 

CALENDER'S DO. 







REFERENCES. 

A. Duncan's battery. 

B. Taylor's do. 

C. Convent Church. 

D. Tete de Pont. 

E. Churubusco, Aug. 20. 

P. F. F. Route of Shields's and Pierce's brigades. 
G. G. G. Col. Garland's route with his brigade. 
H. Anseldo. 
I. August 20. 
J. J. J. Route of Clarke's brigade. 

F. Magdalena. 



TWIGGS'S DIVISION. 
PILLOW'S DIVISION. 
SHIELDS'S BRIGADE. 
WORTH'S DIVISION. 
MEXICAN FORCES. 




S55 tR *»» 



508 



BATTLE OF CONTRERAS. 




General Persifer F. Smith. 



can batteries on the San Angel road. These immediately opened 
their fire. The situation of the Americans was one of difficulty and 
exposure, being by the edge of a field, covered with lava and rocks, 
and utterly impassable, even to a single footman. This was half a 
mile, and terminated on the other side, in a slope leading down into 
a ravine, whose opposite edge was flanked by the San Angel road. 
Here had been erected the strong fortress of Contreras, mounting 
twenty-two guns, and garrisoned by seven thousand troops. A care- 
ful reconnoissance disclosed to General Smith, that he was advancing 
by the only path that crossed the broken bed of lava, and on which 
the enemy, having cleared away all the bushes obstructing their view, 
were prepared to receive him. The guns could be dragged no far- 
ther, and the infantry, in its march down the slope, would be exposed 
to a terrible fire, without knowing whether the crossing of the ravine 
below was possible. In this dilemma, with his brigade isolated from 
the division, Smith resolved to abandon the direct march, and try 
one of the enemy's flanks. 

In order to cover this movement, Captain Magruder opened hi? 
fire in front, while a select company of infantry, artillery, and 
mounted riflemen, passed behind his pieces and filed off towards the 



BATTLE OF CONTRERAS. 



509 



Mexican right. After crossing a rock of nearly a mile in length with 
great difficulty, the troops descended towards the village of Encelda, 
near Contreras. Here they were greeted with the sight of an im- 
mense body of troops, approaching the fort from the capital, and 
gradually forming on the slope of the ravine, at the opposite side 
of the village. An immediate action was now anticipated, but, in- 
stead of pausing, the Americans continued their march, crossing two 
small streams, at the bottom of deep and difficult gulleys, and enter- 
ing the village. Here they were gratified by the sight of four regi- 
ments of Pillow's division, under General Cadwalader, who imme- 
diately placed himself under the orders of General Smith. 

HE village of Encelda is 
separated from the main 
road by a ravine, through 
which runs a small stream 
of water. On the road, and 
between it and the stream, 
are a garden and house, sur- 
rounded by a high and tole- 
rably strong stone wall. The 
village is intersected by nar- 
row lanes, running between 
high dikes, which inclose 
gardens of trees and shrub- 
bery, and in the centre of the 
whole is an old stone church. 
As the trees and sides of the lanes afforded excellent protection to 
the soldiers, General Smith drew up Cadwalader's forces on the 
outer edge of the village, facing the enemy, placed the 3d infantry 
and rifles in column on their right flank, garrisoned the church, and 
stationed Major Dimick's regiment in the garden on the road, to 
secure that avenue and the rear of the brigade. In this position, the 
Americans firmly awaited the threatened attack of the enemy. 

The latter had formed opposite the village in two lines, the in- 
fantry being in front, and the cavalry in the rear ; the whole number- 
ing, probably, two thousand men. It was now after sunset, and the 
heavy clouds and chilly feeling of the atmosphere, foretold a severe 
storm. Suddenly, to the great joy of the Americans, Colonel Riley, 
who had been sent by Twiggs to favour Smith's movement, arrived 
with his brigade. He had crossed the ravine, and gone up towards 
Contreras, driving before him at intervals strong parties of the enemy. 
With this accession to his force, General Smith determined to be- 
come the assailant, and accordingly placed Riley's troops in column on 
2u2 




510 



BATTLE OF CONTRERAS. 



the left, and Cadwalader's on the right, in order to attack the enemy's 
right, but before the troops could be disengaged from the gardens 
and thickets, the darkness was so great that the enemy's line could 
not be seen, and the order to attack was countermanded. General 
Cadwalader's troops again took position on the outer edge of the vil- 
lage ; Riley's brigade parallel to them in a long line inside ; the 
rifles, under Major Loring, on his right, and the 3d infantry in the 
churchyard. 

The night was a terrible one. The rainy season having set in 
some time before the arrival of the American army, the soil had 
been rendered damp and marshy by excessive rains, and the crevices 
of the rocks, as well as the numerous ravines, filled in many places 
with water. These formed the only resting-places for the greater 
part of the troops, in addition to which a heavy rain fell during the 
evening and night of the 19th. No fires were kindled, and many of 
the soldiers were without blankets ; even the officers remained in the 
field, with no other covering than their military coats. The air, 
which, during the day, had been somewhat sultry, was now cold and 
piercing, so that, altogether, the bivouac preceding the battle of 
Contreras was one of the most distressing that the army of General 
Scott ever experienced in Mexico. 

OR were the feelings and prospects of the 
soldiers such as to afford them much en- 
couragement respecting the operations of 
the coming day. General Smith's men 
alone were surrounded, except in the 
rear, by at least eighteen thousand troops, 
carrying nearly thirty pieces of cannon, 
and including in their number six thou- 
sand cavalry. They themselves num- 
bered but three thousand three hundred, 
destitute of both cavalry and artillery. 
The unsuccessful attack of the previous 
day had dispirited the whole army, and rendered the most active 
operations on the part of General Smith necessary, even to maintain 
his position. Should he be forced to abandon this, the entire plan 
of the commanding general would be deranged, and the moral effect 
of such derangement upon the army would be most unfortunate. But, 
even were these difficulties removed, could General Smith success- 
fully defend his position, this would do but little towards furthering 
the designs of General Scott, since the enemy, even if repulsed, 
would be at full liberty to withdraw their forces and direct them 
upon some other point. On the other hand, an attempt to act offen- 




BA.TTLE OF CONTRERAS. 



511 



sively would leave his rear exposed to the whole cavalry force then 
hanging upon it, who, in case of a successful attack, would meet 
with no further opposition in their descent upon the village. 

In this dilemma General Smith adopted the plan apparently the 
most desperate — that of marching from his camp before daylight, and 
renewing the attack upon Contreras. Lieutenant Tower had just 
arrived from a reconnoissance of the ravine in rear of that fort, and 
reported that he thought it practicable, in that direction, for the ope- 
rations of infantry. The enemy's rear, therefore, was chosen as the 
point of attack. At the same time Captain Lee, of the engineers, 
volunteered to return to the general-in-chief, and inform him of the 
contemplated movement, as well as solicit a diversion to favour it 
and protect the rear. Three o'clock, A. M., of the 20th, was selected 
as the time of marching. Silent instructions of the plan and order 
of attack were communicated to the officers of brigades, with direc- 
tions to form their commands, and have them ready for marching at 
half past two. 

The arrangements, both for march and assault, being thus com- 
pleted, there remained to the general no further source of anxiety 
save the defence of the village. From this he was unexpectedly re- 
lieved by the appearance of an aid to General Shields, who reported 
that that officer was on the opposite side of the ravine, in command 
of the New York and South Carolina volunteers. 

ENERAL SHIELDS, being the 
superior officer, could have as- 
sumed immediate command, and 
acted upon Smith's plan as though 
his own. But this he generously 
declined to do, reporting himself 
to his brother officer, and choosing 
the important, though less brilliant 
task, of defending the village dur- 
ing the contemplated attack on 
Contreras. He accordingly re- 
ceived orders to hold the village 
of Encelda with his two regiments, 
cutting off the enemy's retreat from the fort, or opening upon the 
Hank of their reserve, should it change front to the right, in order to 
assail the American camp. 

Just at three o'clock on the 20th, the troops, cold, wet, and 
hungry, commenced their march from the centre of the village. The 
rain continued without intermission, rendering the atmosphere so 
dark that an object six feet off could not be seen, and the rear of the 




512 



BATTLE OF CONTRERAS. 



column was prevented from going astray only by the troops marching 
within touch of each other. Riley's brigade formed the van, accom- 
panied by Lieutenant Tower, who, during the night, had again re- 
connoitered the pass, in order to be satisfied of the practicability of 
the march. Cadwalader followed Colonel Riley, and the rear was 
brought up by Smith's own brigade, escorted by Lieutenant G. W. 
Smith, of the engineer company. The general was accompanied in 
person by Lieutenants Brooks and Beauregard, of the engineers. 

Notwithstanding the weariness of the troops, and their miserable 
condition, consequent to the manner in which the night had been 
passed, they were obliged to march over a road of the utmost diffi- 
culty, jagged by stones and sharp pointed rocks, whose interstices 
were filled with mud and water. Although the march commenced 
at three o'clock, the day had dawned when the head of Cadwalader's 
brigade passed out of the village and began to form at the point where 
the path descends towards the ravine. Owing to the same cause, 
the command, during the march, was extended over a space of more 
than three times its length. 

THE van now entered the 
ravine, proceeding cautiously 
until it reached a point from 
whence a charge might be 
made upon the rear of the 
works. Here it was halted, 
the rear closed up, the wet 
powder drawn from the small 
arms, and replaced by dry, 
and Riley's men formed 
into two columns, prepara- 
tory to the assault. The 
colonel, with his command, 
then recommenced his march, 
winding amid the crags and 
gulleys of the ravine, until, 
turning to his left and rising 
over the bank, he stood in 
full front of the Mexican rear, 
but sheltered from its fire by a slight acclivity. His ranks being in 
disorder, he again halted, reformed, and ascended the eminence. 
Here the whole battle-field broke upon his view, and instantly the 
booming of cannon from the fort, followed almost immediately by 
rapid discharges on his rear, showed him the danger through which 
he must pass, before reaching his object. This was the critical mo- 




*W{% 



Colonel Riley. 



BATTLE OF CONTRERAS. 



513 




Storming of Contreras. 



merit. Throwing forward his first two divisions as skirmishers, he 
shouted to his men to follow, and rushed towards the fort, supported 
by his whole command. The charge, in the very face of the enemy's 
fire, was one of the most brilliant actions of the war ; and, as the re- 
maining troops of Smith's command watched their comrades, they 
became excited to a pitch of enthusiasm, which, for a few moments, 
defied all discipline. The enemy's fire seemed to increase with the 
danger, until at length the position of the fort was discernible only 
by the thick cloud of smoke enveloping it, broken here and there by 
the glare of cannon. Through this murderous storm Riley hurried 
his shattered column, until they reached a cross ravine, close to the 
fort. Across this, under the brow of its slope, the rifles and en- 
gineer company had been thrown, so as to check the detachments 
outside. Here Riley's troops prepared for the decisive struggle with 
the bayonet, and rushing forward, were soon upon the enemy's works. 
At this moment, Cadwalader's whole force was moving rapidly to 
his support. Smith's brigade, under Major Dimick, had marched in 
the same direction ; but, on arriving nearly opposite the fort, that 
officer observed a large body of the enemy on his left flank, and was 
ordered to change his route and attack it. This was done in the 
finest style. The 1st artillery and 3d infantry companies mounted 
the bank of the first ravine, rushed down the second and up its op- 
posite bank, and met the enemy outside of the work, at the same 
moment that Riley's brigade poured into it. At such unexpected 
good fortune, the spirit and enthusiasm of the assailants rose to a 

65 



514 



BATTLE OF CONTRERAS. 



pitch which rendered them totally insensible of danger. Riley's 
charge was irresistible. Every battery in the fort was silenced, the 
enemy were driven in huge masses from the walls, and were soon 
flying from the gates in utter confusion. Meanwhile their cavalry, 
drawn up on the outside for a charge, were attacked by Major 
Dimick's troops with the bayonet, their ranks broken, and both men 
and horses overwhelmed in irremediable slaughter. The rout was 
total. Thousands leaped headlong from the walls, and rushed across 
the fields and up the ravine, throwing from them, in reckless terror, 
arms and even clothing. 

A pleasing incident connected with the capture of the fort deserves 
notice. Scarcely had Riley's colours been placed upon the works 
than the 4th artillery company seized upon the enemy's cannon. 
The very first pieces they laid hands on were two of those taken 
by Santa Anna at Buena Vista, from a company of this very regiment. 
The wild joy of the gallant 4th, at this unlooked-for good fortune, 
was beyond all control. Cheers as if another victory had been won 
burst forth again and again, and were reiterated by the whole com- 
mand ; while many could scarcely be restrained from embracing the 
guns, for which they had so long mourned. As though to add to 
the hilarity of the occasion, General Scott arrived soon after, and re- 
laxing from his accustomed dignity, joined heartily in the shouts of 
the soldiers. 

HE promptitude of Ge- 
neral Shields in cutting 
off the enemy's retreat, 
which he accomplished 
by a fine stratagem, 
contributed in no little 
degree to the complete 
success of Smith's plan. 
The assault took place 
" not more than half a 
mile," "says the lattei 
officer, " off the garden 
and house occupied by 
a part of General Shields's brigade, placed there to intercept the 
enemy. This skilful and gallant officer, when we marched, had 
spread his men over the line we had occupied, and directed them 
to make fires towards daylight, as though preparing their breakfast. 
The enemy in front had, during the night, placed batteries along 
their line, and in the morning moved detachments forward to take 
in flank the attack he saw we were meditating the night before, 




BATTLE OF CONTRERAS. 515 

which he was preparing to meet, supposing, from the indications he 
found, that we were still in force in the village. When, after day- 
light, he saw a column moving on Contreras, (the intrenched camp,) 
and already prepared to turn it, he must have supposed we had been 
strongly reinforced ; for his movements to and fro indicated great 
perplexity. His doubts were soon resolved, however, by the loss of 
Contreras, (the camp,) and he immediately commenced a hasty re- 
treat along the top of the hill, inclining towards the San Angel road. 
Shields's force (five or six hundred men) having, under his skilful 
direction, thus disposed of one enemy, he turned to the other, who, 
in their flight, found themselves intercepted at the garden, and, under 
the sure fire of the South Carolina regiment, broke away over the 
opposite fields, and taking shelter in the ditches and ravines, escaped, 
many of them, to the rocks. Two squadrons of cavalry, either by 
chance or a wise design, in a narrow part of the road between the 
wall and dike, laid down their arms, and so choked the way that pur- 
suit was interrupted for upwards of twenty minutes ; which sufficed 
(we having no cavalry) for the safety of many of the fugitives. A 
large body escaped upwards towards the mountains." 

This gallant conduct of General Shields was not unattended with 
danger to his own command. In speaking of the event of the battle, 
he thus describes his own operations, commencing with the time 
when, on the afternoon of the 19th, he marched to support General 
Smith. 

" Directing my march upon the village near Contreras, the troops 
had to pass over ground covered with rocks and crags, and filled 
with chasms, which rendered the road almost impassable. A deep 
rugged ravine, along the bed of which rolled a rapid stream, was 
passed, after dark, with great difficulty and exertion ; and to rest the 
wearied troops after crossing, I directed them to lie upon their arms 
until midnight. While occupying this position, two strong pickets, 
thrown out by my orders, discovered, fired upon, and drove back a 
body of Mexican infantry moving through the fields in a direction 
from their position towards the city. I have since learned that an 
attempt had in like manner been made by the enemy to pass the 
position on the main road occupied by the 1st regiment of artillery, 
and with a like want of success. About midnight I again resumed 
the march, and joined Brigadier-General Smith in the village al- 
ready referred to. 

" General Smith, previous to my arrival, had made the most judi- 
cious arrangement for turning and surprising the Mexican position 
about daybreak, and with which I could not wish to interfere. This 
cast upon my command the necessity of holding the position to be 



516 



BATTLE OF CONTRERAS. 




General Shields. 



evacuated by General Smith, and which was threatened by the enemy's 
artillery and infantry on the right, and a large force of his cavalry on 
the left. About daybreak the enemy opened a brisk fire of grape 
and round shot upon the church and village in which my brigade was 
posted, as also upon a part of our own troops displayed to divert him 
on his right and front — evidently unaware of the movement in pro- 
gress to turn his position by the left and rear. This continued until 
Colonel Riley's brigade opened its fire from the rear, which was de- 
livered with such terrible effect, that the whole Mexican force was 
thrown into the utmost consternation. 

" At this juncture, I ordered the two regiments of my command to 
throw themselves on the main road, by which the enemy must retire, 
to intercept and cut off his retreat; and, although officers and men 
had suffered severely during the march of the night, and from expo- 
sure without shelter or cover to the incessant rain until daybreak, 
this movement was executed in good order, and with rapidity. The 
Palmetto regiment, crossing a deep ravine, deployed on both sides 
of the road, and opened a most destructive fire upon the mingled 



RESULT OF THE BATTLE. 



517 



masses of infantry and cavalry; and the New York regiment, 
brought into line lower down, and on the roadside, delivered its fire 
with a like effect. At this point many of the enemy were killed and 
wounded ; some three hundred and sixty- five captured, of which 
twenty-five were officers, and amongst the latter was General Nicolas 
Mendoza. 

" In the mean while the enemy's cavalry, about three thousand 
strong, which had been threatening our position during the morning, 
moved down towards us in good order, and as if to attack. I imme- 
diately recalled the infantry, to place them in position to meet the 
threatened movement ; but soon the cavalry changed its direction 
and retreated towards the capital. I now received an order from 
General Twiggs to advance by the main road towards Mexico ; and 
having posted Captain Marshall's company of South Carolina volun- 
teers and Captain Taylor's New York volunteers, in charge of the 
prisoners and wounded, I moved off with the remainder of my force, 
and joined the positions of the 2d and 3d divisions, already en route 
on the main road. On this march we were joined by the general- 
in-chief, who assumed command of the whole, and the march con- 
tinued uninterrupted until we arrived before Churubusco. 

HE reports of Mexican officers cap- 
tured in this battle, left no doubt that 
there were in and about Contreras, 
prior to the attack, seven thousand 
regular troops, under the command of 
General Valencia, and twelve thou- 
sand in front of Encelda, (the neigh- 
bouring hamlet,) forming a reserve, 
under Santa Anna. Their loss was 
seven hundred killed, a large num- 
ber wounded, and fifteen hundred 
prisoners, including several generals. 
The Americans captured twenty-two 
pieces of brass ordnance — including 
four Spanish sixteen-pounders, four eight-inch howitzers, two five 
and a half inch howitzers, six six-pounders, and six smaller pieces — 
together with seven hundred pack mules, a large number of horses, 
and immense quantities of shells, ammunition, and small arms. The 
latter were destroyed." 

A narrative of this great battle, in which three thousand men, with- 
out guns or cavalry, drove twice their number from a fortress con- 
sidered impregnable, provided with every requisite of defensive 
warfare, and seconded by a reserve of ten thousand troops, would be 
2X 




518 



SMITH S REPORT. 




General Cadwaladcr. 



incomplete if destitute of a meed of praise to both officers and men 
of the assailants. Such tribute is afforded by the one most capable 
of awarding it — General Smith himself. " The troops," says his 
report of the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, " in the actions in 
the pedregal, distinguished themselves far beyond my capacity to do 
them justice. The difficulties they overcame, supposed by the enemy 
to be insuperable, the hardships they endured, and the fatigue they 
suffered, contrasted with the manner in which they did their work, 
raises their character as soldiers highly towards perfection. 

"Brigadier-General Cadwalader (in the morning) brought his 
corps up from his intricate bivouac in good order, formed the head 
of his column to support Riley's, and led it forward in the most gal- 
lant style under the fire directed at the latter. The 1st brigade was 
conducted by Major Dimick, who charged in line with it on the 
enemy's left, driving before him the force formed there outside of the 
works, and putting to rout a far superior force, displaying the skill 
of the commander as well as the bravery of the soldier. But the 



smith's report. 519 

opportunity afforded by his position to Colonel Riley was seized by 
that gallant veteran with all the skill and energy for which he is dis- 
tinguished. The charge of his noble brigade down the slope, in full 
view of friend and foe, unchecked even for a moment, until he had 
planted all his colours upon their farthest works, was a spectacle that 
animated the army to the boldest deeds. 

"Majors Gardner and Brown, 4th artillery, at the head of their 
regiment, setting an example by their own courage, carried the part 
of the work before them ; and Captain Drum, of that corps, had the 
good fortune to recover the trophies of Buena Vista. Colonel Plymp- 
ton and Major Bainbridge, with the 7th infantry, as that veteran 
regiment deserves to be led, and Captain Morris, in command of 
the 2d infantry, brought it up to share equally with the others in the 
honours of the successful assault. Captain Alexander's good con- 
duct brought his regiment up most effectively. Major Loring, de- 
tached to cover Colonel Riley's left, showed not only a perfect 
knowledge of the value of his arm, but the courage and activity 
necessary to make it effective. Lieutenant G. W. Smith, in command 
of the engineer company, and Lieutenant McClellan, his subaltern, 
distinguished themselves throughout the whole of the three actions. 
Nothing seemed to them too bold to be undertaken, or too difficult to 
be executed ; and their services as engineers were as valuable as 
those they rendered in battle at the head of their gallant men. Lieu- 
tenant Foster, being detached from his company during the action at 
Contreras, did not fall under my notice ; but in the actions of the 
19th, and at Churubusco, he was equally conspicuous for his gal- 
lantry. In adverting to the conduct of the staff, I wish to record 
particularly my admiration of the conduct of Captain Lee, of the 
engineers. His reconnoissances, though pushed far beyond the 
bounds of prudence, were conducted with so much skill, that their 
fruits were of the utmost value — the soundness of his judgment and 
personal daring being equally conspicuous. Lieutenants Beauregard 
and Tower, of the same corps, rendered me the most important ser- 
vices in examining the ground, and displayed throughout the greatest 
personal gallantry. To the latter I am indebted for the knowledge 
of the route by which it was practicable to turn the enemy's works. 
The accident which separated the different parts of the division on 
the evening of the 19th, left its acting assistant adjutant-general, 
Lieutenant W. T. H. Brooks, with Colonel Riley's brigade, and on 
its joining me he offered his services on my staff. I owe him my 
thanks for the very efficient aid he rendered me, and for his inde- 
fatigable energy and readiness to encounter any danger or difficulty ; 
his personal courage and coolness were brilliantly displayed in the 



520 



REMARKS ON THE BATTLE. 



course of the day. The events of Fort Brown, Monterey, Vera Cruz, 
and Cerro Gordo had already afforded to my aid-de-camp, Lieute- 
nant Earl Van Dorn, opportunities of calling forth the commendations 
of his commanding officers. He has not let pass the present one ; 
but though his gallantry was again shown in a personal conflict with 
the enemy, it is far from being the highest quality of a soldier that he 
possesses." Many other officers, of inferior grade, are mentioned by 
the general in terms of the highest commendation. 

The loss of the army within Contreras was a severe blow to the 
Mexicans. Not only was their numerical force diminished by nearly 
one-third, but the greater part of their best military stores were lost, 
besides some of their ablest officers. The moral effect was tremen- 
dous. Although their actual loss in killed, wounded, and taken, 
was about three thousand, yet of the remainder not more than fifteen 
hundred joined Santa Anna, and fell back on Churubusco. The par- 
tial success of the 19th had inflated the pride of the garrison, and 
confirmed them in their former belief, that the works were impregna- 
ble ; and the transition from this fond illusion to the unexpected 
realities of the 20th, was overwhelming. 

ANTA ANNA, in his official report of the 
action, imputes the whole blame to the 
commandant, General Valencia, whom 
he had ordered to evacuate Contreras, 
on perceiving that the American army 
had safely eluded El Penon and Mexi- 
calzingo. This, Valencia neglected to 
do, relying on the strength of his posi- 
tion, and the known superiority of his 
garrison in point of numbers. But for 
this disobedience of orders, the difficul- 
ties of the Americans would have been 
seriously augmented. Even after so 
severe a blow, dispiriting as it was to the remainder of Santa Anna's 
army, the fortress of Churubusco was defended most obstinately ; 
and the addition of seven thousand troops, led by Santa Anna, with 
twenty pieces of cannon, and the immense stores of Contreras, pre- 
vious to the occurrence of an enervating defeat, would have thrown a 
degree of energy into the defence of the first position which would 
have required more than the exertions of Smith's and Shields's com- 
mands to carry it. " Had Valencia," says an eye-witness, " obeyed 
the order of Santa Anna, sent to him on the 18th August, and fallen 
back to Coyoacan or Churubusco, with his seven thousand veteran 
tioops, twenty-two large cannon, and his vast stores of ammunition, 




REMARKS ON THE BATTLE. 



521 



it would have so strengthened Santa Anna, that we doubt if General 
Scott could ever have carried this latter position. As it was, our 
army encountered a fierce and destructive opposition, which cost us 
a thousand killed and wounded. Our army, too, but for the victory 
of Contreras, would have exhausted its supply of ammunition, before 
it could have made an impression on the enemy's strong position at 
Churubusco. But the capture of Contreras supplied the whole army 
with abundant stores of ammunition, and doubled the strength of our 
artillery. 

" The result proved the sagacity of Santa Anna ; for had Valencia 
obeyed the order to evacuate his position, we doubt if our army would 
now be occupying it. 

"The victory of Contreras opened to our army the road to the 
capital. It is emphatically the great battle of the war. Had it been 
a defeat, disgrace and ruin, or utter annihilation would have been 
the fate of our army." 

The language of this extract is, perhaps, in a few places, rather 
strong ; since there can be little doubt that even in the event of a 
repulse before Churubusco, the genius of General Scott would have 
surmounted every difficulty, aud cut his way into the capital. It 
shows, however, the light in which the victory of Contreras was re- 
garded by the army, and as the writer justly observes, proves the 
sagacity of Santa Anna. 

URING the assault upon Con- 
treras, the divisions of Worth 
and Quitman were marching 
rapidly to Smith's assistance. 
But before their advance bri- 
gades had appeared in sight, 
the battle was over, and Gene- 
ral Scott, arriving soon after, 
ordered them both to their 
former positions. Worth was 
to attack the front of San An- 
tonio with his whole force as 
soon as approached in the 
rear by Pillow's and Twiggs'a 
divisions — moving from Con- 
treras through San Angel and 
Cayoacan. By carrying San 
Angel, a shorter and better 
road to the capital, for the siege trains, would be opened. 

In order to understand the movements of the different divisions 
2x2 66 




522 scott's despatch. 

subsequent to the fall of Contreras, it will be necessary to give the 
sketch of them drawn by General Scott, and afterwards fill it up by 
detailed description. " The two advanced divisions," says the 
general-in-chief, " and Shields's brigade, marched from Contreras 
under the immediate command of Major-General Pillow, who was 
now joined by the gallant Brigadier-General Pierce, of his division, 
personally thrown out of activity late the evening before, by a severe 
hurt received from the fall of his horse. 

"After giving necessary orders on the field, in the midst of pri- 
soners and trophies, and sending instructions to Harney's brigade of 
cavalry, left at San Augustin, to join me, I personally followed Pil- 
low's command. 

"Arriving at Coyoacan, two miles by a cross road, from the rear 
of San Antonio, I first detached Captain Lee, engineer, with Captain 
Kearny's troop, first dragoons, supported by the rifle regiment, under 
Major Loring, to reconnoiter that strong point; and next despatched 
Major-General Pillow, with one of his brigades, (Cadwalader's,) to 
make the attack upon it, in concert with Major General Worth, on 
the opposite side. 

" At the same time, by another road to the left, Lieutenant Ste- 
vens, of the engineers, supported by Lieutenant G. W. Smith's com- 
pany of sappers and miners, of the same corps, was sent to recon- 
noiter the strongly fortified church or convent of San Pablo, in the 
hamlet of Churubusco — one mile off. Twiggs, with one of his bri- 
gades, (Smith's — less the rifles,) and Captain Taylor's field battery, 
were ordered to follow and to attack the convent. Major Smith, senior 
engineer, was despatched to concert with Twiggs the mode and 
means of attack, and Twiggs's other brigade, (Riley's,) I soon ordered 
up to support him. 

"Next (but all in ten minutes) I sent Pierce, (just able to keep the 
saddle,) with his brigade, (Pillow's division,) conducted by Captain 
Lee, engineer, by a third road, a little farther to our left, to attack 
the enemy's right and rear, in order to favour the movement upon 
the convent, and cut off the retreat towards the capital. And, 
finally, Shields, senior brigadier to Pierce, with the New York and 
South Carolina volunteers, (Quitman's division,) was ordered to 
follow Pierce closely, and to take the command of our left wing. 
All these movements were made with the utmost alacrity by our gal- 
lant troops and commanders. 

"Finding myself at Coyoacan, from which so many roads conve- 
niently branched, without escort or reserve, I had to advance, for 
safety, close upon Twiggs's rear. The battle now raged from the 
right to the left of our whole line. 



scott's despatch. 523 

" Learning, on the return of Captain Lee, that Shields, in the real 
of Churubusco, was hard pressed, and in danger of being outflanked, 
if not overwhelmed, by greatly superior numbers, I immediately sent, 
under Major Sumner, 2d dragoons, the rifles (Twiggs's reserve) and 
Captain Sibley's troop, 2d dragoons, then at hand, to support oui 
left, guided by the same engineer. 

" About an hour earlier, Worth had, by skilful and daring move 
ments upon the front and right, turned and forced San Antonio- 
its garrison, no doubt, much shaken by our decisive victory at 
Contreras. 

" His second brigade, (Colonel Clarke's,) conducted by Captain 
Mason, engineer, assisted by Lieutenant Hardcastle, topographical 
engineer, turned the right, and by a wide sweep came out upon the 
high road to the capital. At this point the heavy garrison, (three 
thousand men,) in retreat, was, by Clarke, cut in the centre ; one 
portion, the rear, driven upon Dolores, off to the right ; and the 
other upon Churubusco, in the direct line of our operations. The 1st 
brigade, (Colonel Garland's,) same division, consisting of the 2d 
artillery, under Major Gait, the 3d artillery, under Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel Belton, and the 4th infantry, commanded by Major F. Lee, with 
Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan's field-battery, (temporarily,) followed 
in pursuit through the town, taking one general prisoner, the 
abandoned guns, (five pieces,) much ammunition, and other public 
property. 

" The forcing of San Antonio was the second brilliant event of 
the day. 

" Worth's division being soon reunited in hot pursuit, he was 
joined by Major-General Pillow, who, marching from Coyoacan and 
discovering that San Antonio had been carried, immediately turned 
to the left, according to my instructions, and, though much impeded 
by ditches and swamps, hastened to the attack of Churubusco. 

" The hamlet or scattered houses bearing this name presented, 
besides the fortified convent, a strong field-work (tete de pont) with 
regular bastions and curtains, at the head of a bridge over which the 
road passes, from San Antonio to the capital. 

"The whole remaining forces of Mexico — some twenty-seven 
thousand men — cavalry, artillery, and infantry, collected from every 
quarter — were now in, on the flanks or within supporting distance 
of those works, and seemed resolved to make a last and desperate 
stand ; for if beaten here, the feebler defences at the gates of the city — 
four miles off — could not, as was well known to both parties, delay 
the victors an hour. The capital of an ancient empire, now of a 
great republic ; or an early peace, the assailants were resolved to 



524 scott's despatch. 

win. Not an American, and we were less than a third of the enemy's 
numbers — had a doubt as to the result 

" The fortified church or convent, hotly pressed by Twiggs, had 
already held out about an hour, when Worth and Pillow — the latter 
having with him Cadwalader's brigade — began to manceuver closely 
upon the tete de pont, with the convent at half gun-shot to their left. 
Garland's brigade, (Worth's division,) to which had been added the 
light battalion under Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, continued to advance 
in front and under the fire of a long line of infantry, off on the left 
of the bridge ; and Clarke, of the same division, directed his brigade 
along the road, or close by its side. Two of Pillow's and Cadwala- 
der's regiments, the 11th and 14th, supported and participated in 
this direct movement : the other (the voltigeurs) was left in reserve. 
Most of these corps — particularly Clarke's brigade — advancing per- 
pendicularly, were made to suffer much by the fire of the tete de pont, 
and they would have suffered greatly more by flank attacks from the 
convent, but for the pressure of Twiggs on the other side of that 
work. 

" This well-combined and daring movement at length reached the 
principal point of attack, and the formidable tete de pont was at once 
assaulted and carried by the bayonet. Its deep wet ditch was first 
gallantly crossed by the 8th and 5th infantry, commanded, respec- 
tively, by Major Waite and Lieutenant-Colonel Scott — followed 
closely by the 6th infantry, (same brigade,) which had been so much 
exposed on the road — the 11th regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel 
Graham, and the 14th commanded by Colonel Trousdale, both of 
Cadwalader's brigade, Pillow's division. About the same time, the 
enemy in front of Garland, after a hot conflict of an hour and a half, 
gave way, in a retreat towards the capital. 

" The immedate results of this third signal triumph of the day 
were, three field-pieces, one hundred and ninety-two* prisoners, 
much ammunition, and two colours taken at the tete de pont. 

"Lieutenant J. F. Irons, 1st artillery, aid-de-camp to Brigadier- 
General Cadwalader, a young officer of great merit, and conspicuous 
in battle on several previous occasions, received, in front of the work, 
a mortal wound. (Since dead.) As the concurrent attack upon the 
convent favoured, physically and morally, the assault upon the tete de 
pont, so, reciprocally, no doubt, the fall of the latter contributed to 
the capture of the former. The two works were only some four hun- 
dred and fifty yards apart ; and as soon as we were in possession of 
the tete de pont, a captured four-pounder was turned and fired — first 
by Captain Larkin Smith, and next by Lieutenant Snelling, both of 
the 8th infantry — several times upon the convent. In the same brief 



scott's despatch. 525 

interval, Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan (also of Worth's division) gal- 
lantly brought two of his guns to bear, at a short range, from the 
San Antonio road, upon the principal face of the work, and on the 
tower of the church, which in the obstinate contest, had been often 
refilled with some of the best sharp-shooters of the enemy. 

" Finally, twenty minutes after the tete de pont had been carried 
by Worth and Pillow, and at the end of a desperate conflict of two 
hours and a half, the church or convent — the citadel of the strong 
line of defence along the rivulet of Churubusco — yielded to Twiggs's 
division, and threw out on all sides signals of surrender. The white 
flags, however, were not exhibited until the moment when the 3d 
infantry, under Captain Alexander, had cleared the way by fire and 
bayonet, and had entered the work. Captain J. M. Smith and Lieu- 
tenant 0. L. Shepherd, both of that regiment, with their companies, 
had the glory of leading the assault. The former received the sur- 
render, and Captain Alexander instantly hung out from the balcony 
the colours of the gallant 3d. Major Dimick, with a part of the 1st 
artillery, serving as infantry, entered nearly abreast with the leading 
troops. 

" Captain Taylor's field-battery, attached to Twiggs's division, 
opened its effective fire at an early moment, upon the outworks of 
the convent and the tower of its church. Exposed to the severest 
fire of the enemy, the captain, his officers and men, won universal 
admiration ; but at length much disabled, in men and horses, the 
battery was, by superior orders, withdrawn from the action, thirty 
minutes before the surrender of the convent. 

" Those corps, excepting Taylor's battery, belonged to the brigade 
of Brigadier-General Smith, who closely directed the whole attack in 
front, with his habitual coolness and ability; while Riley's brigade — 
the 2d and 7th infantry, under Captain T. Morris and Lieutenant- 
Colonel Plympton, respectively — vigorously engaged the right of the 
work and part of its rear. At the moment the rifles, belonging to 
Smith's, were detached in support of Brigadier-General Shields's on 
our extreme left ; and the 4th artillery, acting as infantry, under 
Major Gardner, belonging to Riley's brigade, had been left in charge 
of the camp, trophies, &c, at Contreras. Twiggs's division, at 
Churubusco, had thus been deprived of the services of two of its 
most gallant and effective regiments. 

" The immediate results of this victory were : — the capture of seven 
field-pieces, some ammunition, one colour, three generals, and one 
thousand two hundred and sixty-one prisoners, including other officers. 

"Captains E. A. Capron and M. J. Burke, and Lieutenant S. 
Hoffman, all of the 1st artillery, and Captain J. W. Anderson and 



526 



SCOTT S DESPATCH. 



Lieutenant Thomas Easley, both of the 2d infantry — five officers of 
great merit — fell gallantly before this work. 

" The capture of the enemy's citadel was the fourth great achieve- 
ment of our arms in the same day. 

" It has been stated that, some two hours and a half before, Pierce's 
followed closely by the volunteer brigade — both under the command 
of Brigadier-General Shields — had been detached to our left to turn 
the enemy's works ; — to prevent the escape of the garrisons and to 
oppose the extension of the enemy's numerous corps, from the rear, 
upon and around our left. 

" Considering the inferior numbers of the two brigades, the objects 
of the movement were difficult to accomplish. Hence the reinforce- 
ment (the rifles, &c.) sent forward a little later. 

N a winding march of a 
mile around to the right, 
this temporary division 
found itself on the edge of 
an open wet meadow, near 
the road from San Antonio 
to the capital, and in the presence of 
some four thousand of the enemy's in- 
fantry, a little in rear of Churubusco, 
on that road. Establishing the right at 
a strong building, Shields extended his 
left, parallel to the road, to outflank the enemy towards the capital. 
But the enemy extending his right, supported by three thousand 
cavalry, more rapidly, (being favoured by better ground,) in the same 
direction, Shields concentrated the division about a hamlet, and de- 
termined to attack in front. The battle was long, hot, and varied; 
but ultimately, success crowned the zeal and gallantry of our troops, 
ably directed by their distinguished commander, Brigadier-General 
Shields. The 9th, 12th, and 15th regiments, under Colonel Ransom, 
Captain Wood, and Colonel Morgan, respectively, of Pierce's bri- 
gade, (Pillow's division,) and the New York and South Carolina 
volunteers, under Colonels Burnett and Butler, respectively, of 
Shields's own brigade, (Quitman's division,) together with the moun- 
tain howitzer battery, now under Lieutenant Reno, of the ordnance 
corps, all shared in the glory of this action — our Jifth victory in the 
same day. 

" Brigadier-General Pierce, from the hurt of the evening before — 
under pain and exhaustion — fainted in the action. Several othei 
changes in command occurred on this field. Thus Colonel Morgan 
Deing severely wounded, the command of the 15th infantry devolved on 




scott's despatch. 527 

Lieutenant-Colohel Howard ; Colonel Burnett receiving a like wound, 
the command of the New York volunteers fell to Lieutenant-Colonel 
Baxter ; and, on the fall of the lamented Colonel P. M. Butler — 
earlier badly wounded, but continuing to lead nobly in the hottest 
part of the battle — the command of the South Carolina volunteers 
devolved — first on Lieutenant-Colonel Dickinson, who being severely 
wounded, (as before in the seige of Vera Cruz,) the regiment ulti- 
mately fell under the orders of Major Gladden. 

"Lieutenants David Adams and W. R. Williams, of the same 
corps ; Captain Augustus Quarles, and Lieutenant J. B. Goodman, 
of the 15th, and Lieutenant E. Chandler, New York volunteers — all 
gallant officers, nobly fell in the same action. 

"Shields took three hundred and eighty prisoners, including 
officers ; and it cannot be doubted that the rage of the conflict be- 
tween him and the enemy, just in the rear of the tete de pont and the 
convent, had some influence on the surrender of those formidable 
defences. 

" As soon as the tete de pont was carried, the greater part of Worth's 
and Pillow's forces passed that bridge in rapid pursuit of the flying 
enemy. These distinguished generals, coming up with Brigadier- 
General Shields, now also victorious, the three continued to press 
upon the fugitives to within a mile and a half of the capital. Here, 
Colonel Harney, with a small part of his brigade of cavalry, rapidly 
passed to the front, and charged the enemy up to the nearest gate. 

" The cavalry charge was headed by Captain Kearny, of the 1st 
dragoons, having a squadron, with his own troop, that of Captain 
McReynolds, of the 3d — making the usual escort to general head- 
quarters ; but, being early in the day attached for general service, 
was now under Colonel Harney's orders. The gallant captain not 
hearing the recall that had been sounded, dashed up to the San 
Antonio gate, sabreing, in his way, all who resisted. Of the seven 
officers of the squadron, Kearny lost his left arm ; McReynolds and 
Lieutenant Lorimer Graham were both severely wounded, and Lieu- 
tenant R. S. Ewell, who succeeded to the command of the escort, 
had two horses killed under him. Major F. D. Mills, of the 15th 
infantry, a volunteer in this charge, was killed at the gate. 

" So terminated the series of events which I have but feebly pre- 
sented. My thanks were freely poured out on the different fields — 
to the abilities and science of generals and other officers — to the 
gallantry and prowess of all — the rank and file included. But 
a reward infinitely higher — the applause of a grateful country 
and government — will, I cannot doubt, be accorded, in due time, 
to so much merit, of every sort, displayed by this glorious army, 



528 



WORTHS DIVISION. 




which has now overcome all difficulties — distance, climate, ground, 
fortifications, numbers." 

N order to have a proper appreciation of 
the numerous and complicated movements 
thus systematically sketched, it will be ne- 
cessary to describe each in the order de- 
tailed, as far as it can be done without too 
much isolating events, which were mutu- 
ally dependent in effect, and simultaneous 
in point of time. In a single charge, like 
that of Colonel Riley, or even in the con- 
centrated efforts of an army, in open 
field, there is little danger of error or con- 
fusion in the description. But when an 
army is dissected into numerous columns, 
crossing and recrossing each other, over 
the most aggravating ground, and storming intricate chains of works,, 
where every building is a fort, and victory is won only when the 
very last work is carried,, even the eye witness, unless he be a mili- 
tary genius of the first order, is incapable of forming a purely system- 
atic opinion of the scene before him. Notwithstanding, therefore, 
the utmost care on the part of the historian, our description must be 
somewhat faint and imperfect. The safest course then — that which 
has hitherto been exclusively pursued in our descriptions of battles — 
is to describe each important incident as nearly as possible in the 
order of its occurrence, basing the description entirely on the reports 
of the American commanders. 

As early as the 18th instant, General Worth had taken position, 
with his division, on the causeway leading to San Antonio, within 
fifteen hundred yards of its fortified front. The reconnoissance of 
that evening, in the course of which Captain Thornton was killed, 
has already been mentioned. Its object was to ascertain, if possible, 
a route for turning the entire system of defense by the enemy's right. 
This was satisfactorily accomplished on the following morning, and 
at eleven o'clock, A. M. the division commenced its movement to- 
wards the fortress. The van was conducted by Colonel Clarke, who 
was followed by Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, the whole under 
the guidance of Captain Mason and Lieutenant Hardcastle of the 
engineers. The troops took such a direction as to envelope the 
Mexican right, and at the same time be in position to cut off any 
attempted retreat towards the capital. 

While Worth was conducting these movements in front of San 
Antonio, General Pillow approached its rear from Contreras. After 



worth's report. 529 

marching as rapidly as the nature of the ground would permit, he 
halted at Coyoacan, in order to await the arrival of General Scott. 
Here it was ascertained that the enemy, on discovering the loss of 
Contreras, had abandoned San Antonio, lest their rear would be ex- 
posed, and fallen back upon Churubusco. Another strong position 
was thus surrendered to the Americans, affording them advantages' 
which they were not slow in improving. Twiggs immediately re- 
ceived orders to move forward with his division, and attack the work 
on the enemy's right ; and Pillow to assault, with Cadwalader's bri- 
gade, the tete de pont (a strong fort on the bridge) on the left. The 
troops having to pass over marshy fields and deep ditches filled with 
mud and water, rendered the execution of these commands very diffi- 
cult. The perseverance of both officers and men finally overcame 
these obstacles, and the two commands safely reached the causeway, 
where they came in sight of General Worth, with the advance of his 
division, marching to attack the same work. 

The operations of this gallant officer, in the field before San An- 
tonio, together with his attack upon Churubusco and San Pablo, are 
thus described by himself: 

"Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan's artillery (light battery) and the 1st 
brigade, composed of the 2d and 3d artillery and 4th infantry, com- 
manded by Brevet Colonel Garland, was advanced to an angle in the 
causeway which partially masked it from the enemy's direct fire, and 
held in readiness for a rapid direct movement when the 2d brigade 
should become engaged and have attracted attention to that quarter. 
Subsequently, the 4th infantry was placed on the left of the cause- 
way, and instructed to move by a flank, under guidance of Assistant 
Adjutant-General Mackall, between that route and the 2d brigade, 
either to sustain the latter, or, if opportunity offered, rush upon one 
of the batteries. Discovering these dispositions, and particularly the 
movement of the 2d brigade, and doubtless somewhat influenced by 
the operations going on in the direction of Contreras, the enemy sent 
troops to check the advance of our left, and commenced an evacua- 
tion of the works. 

" After having brushed away the troops in front, Colonel Clarke's 
command approached a point on the high road occupied by the ene- 
my's retreating column, and by a rapid movement, particularly of 
two companies of the 5th infantry, under Captains Morril and 
McPhail, commanded by Lieutenant- Colonel Scott, guided by Cap- 
tain Mason, cut this column nearly in the centre — the advanced por- 
tion of it moving upon Churubusco, (where we shortly afterwards 
discovered the enemy's main array of battle,) and the remainder, 
about two thousand in number, under General Bravo, with four 
2Y 67 



530 worth's report. 

pieces of artillery, retreated upon Dolores. The instant Clarke's 
fire opened, Garland was instructed to advance rapidly in column, 
and attempt a direct assault, previously detaching a company in 
advance, which, by drawing the enemy's fire, might discover the 
magnitude of his batteries in that quarter ; but it appeared that the 
guns at that point had been hastily withdrawn in the hope of getting 
them away. Garland's column was soon in, unresisted, and rapidly 
passed through the works, and on the high road to the capital. Some 
six hundred yards beyond the works, the division was reunited, and, 
disregarding the force retreating upon Dolores, the whole moved 
rapidly and in good order to the higher object. Approaching Churu- 
busco — that place being on the left, and near the road — it was dis- 
covered to be strongly occupied with troops, and protected by bat- 
teries and infantry defences. Farther in advance was discovered a 
regular field-work, garnished with heavy guns and crowded with 
troops. Between the two, a continuous line of infantry ; and on the 
left and rear of the work, (tete de pont,) a dense line of infantry as far 
as the eye could reach. On getting within cannon-shot, and so of 
musketry, the enemy opened with effect upon the head of the lead- 
ing battalion. Garland's brigade was now thrown promptly to the 
right of, and in line of columns obliquely to, the road ; which order 
would, in its advance and deployment, strike the enemy's line at a 
like angle — the light battalion on its right. The 2d brigade was 
ordered to move also to the right, (except the 6th infantry,) and by a 
flank parallel to the road, while the 6th infantry was directed to ad- 
vance by the high road and storm the tete de pont in front. The 
field to the right was filled with standing corn, which masked large 
bodies of the enem}', and from whose fire, in consequence, every 
command suffered greatly in the first instance. Running over these, 
Garland's brigade was soon engaged with their more regular lines 
and masses. Clarke's, as soon as it could be got in the position 
above described — and it came at double-quick time — became engaged 
in like manner. 

"The 6th regiment of infantry moved with a steadiness worthy of 
its established reputation, to assault the work in front, as directed ; 
but being exposed to a combined fire of grape, canister, and mus- 
ketry, which raked the road, it was of necessity momentarily checked. 
Meantime, the 8th and 5th of Clarke's brigade, more favourably situ- 
ated to effect results, but under a terrible fire, dashed past the deep 
and wet ditch that entirely surrounded the work, carried it by the 
bayonet, and, as quick as thought, turned the captured cannon upon 
that portion of the enemy stationed in the town, and which was com- 
bating our troops approaching from the direction of Contreras, occa- 



worth's report. 531 

sionally reversing their fire upon our left flank. Previous to this 
period, and when in the act of giving direction to the battalions, I 
was joined by Major-General Pillow, who came in from the left with 
three regiments of his division — Cadwalader's brigade — having with 
great difficulty made his way through the marshes; thence to the 
close of the day, I had the pleasure of his gallant association and 
assistance. Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan's battery of light artillery 
which had been directed to be masked, being unable to counter- 
batter the heavier metal in front, and the intersected character of the 
ground rendering it impossible to move it from the high-road, was 
now rapidly advanced by its gallant commander, and opened at a 
position some two hundred yards distant from the work around the 
church of San Pablo, situated in, and constituting the key of, that 
portion of the enemy's defences ; seizing the prolongation of a prin- 
cipal face, in a space of five minutes, by a fire of astonishing rapidity, 
the enemy was driven from his guns in that quarter, and the infantry 
from their intrenchments ; the main body taking refuge in the church 
and under cover of its yard walls. The fire was then turned upon 
the church, and after a few rounds, several white flags were thrown 
out by the enemy, the fire ordered to cease, and an officer despatched 
to accept the surrender of the place. To this period there had been 
no perceptible abatement of the fire from the town in the direction 
of our troops attacking the opposite face. Immediately thereafter, 
our troops in the vicinity pushed on to the point where portions of 
Garland's and Clarke's brigades were yet engaged in hand-to-hand 
conflicts with the masses of infantry on the left and rear of the cap- 
tured field-work first referred to ; but, under the triple influence of 
our musketry, the capture of the tete de pont, and the silencing of the 
fire in the town, (directed upon other divisions of our army,) the main 
body of the enemy was soon discovered to be in full and confused 
retreat. Pressing along the highway in pursuit of the enemy, the 
division was soon intersected by the brigade of General Shields ap- 
proaching from the left, with the remainder of his brave command, 
consisting of the South Carolina and New York regiments, and also 
by the arrival of Lieutenant-Colonel Graham, with the small remains 
of his battalion of the 11th regiment of infantry. These were a por- 
tion of the main army assaulting, in the opposite direction of the 
town, the right and reserve of the enemy, under the immediate direc- 
tion of the general-in-chief. The pursuit of the enemy by the first 
division, acting in concert and cordial co-operation with these 
forces, was continued to within one mile and a half of the gate of 
Mexico, (La Candelaria.) At this point, ignorant, first, of the mag- 
nitude of the defences at the garita, and, secondly, of the ulterior 



532 



WORTHS REPORT. 




The Storming of Churubusco. 



views of the general-in-chief, I ordered a halt of the united forces, 
after consulting with Major-General Pillow and Brigadier-General 
Shields. Colonel Harney, coming up at this instant with two squad- 
rons of cavalry, was permitted to make a dash at the rear of the 
enemy's retiring forces. In the eager pursuit, the head of the column 
pressing on too closely, and disregarding or not hearing their com- 
mander's recall, came under the fire of the battery, and suffered 
severely. The ground on which the troops operated, off the high- 
road, is remarkably intersected ; loose soil, growing grain, and, at 
brief intervals, deep ditches for the purpose of drainage and irriga- 
tion. These ditches vary from six to eight feet in depth, about the 
same in width, with from three to four feet of water — the reverse 
banks lined with the enemy's light troops." 

It should be remembered that nearly all these operations were con- 
ducted at different points of the field, during the same time. The 
whole battle-ground, from the capture of Contreras until the final 
retreat of the enemy, presented one of the most exciting spectacles 
ever witnessed on the American continent. More than forty thou- 
sand troops were engaged in close conflict, on foot and on horseback, 
sometimes in the open field, and at other times behind breastworks 
of the strongest construction. While Pillow approached the fortress 
on one side, Worth's troops were sweeping along the causeway on 
the other ; while in the intermediate spaces, Generals Twiggs, Shields, 
and their companions were hurrying along masses of reinforcements. 
Sometimes the shouts of soldiers and rumbling of artillery could be 



PURSUIT OF THE ENEMY. 533 

heard ringing clearly across the plains ; and then in a few moments 
every other sound would be swallowed up in the loud roaring of op- 
posing batteries. Through storms of iron hail, which scattered death 
on all sides, the Americans rushed, while conducting their charges, 
upon the cathedral and neighbouring buildings of Churubusco. The 
final assault was conducted in the spirit of fearless impetuosity cha- 
racteristic of the American soldier — brilliant to behold, but terrible 
to the enemy. 

Its effect upon the Mexicans was decisive. Abandoning every 
thing, they fled in distressing confusion towards the city, treading each 
other down in their hurry and terror. And when among their terri- 
fied shrieking masses, broke like an avalanche, the dragoons of Har- 
ney, the uproar and slaughter were terrific. Some were ridden down, 
others killed by a stroke of the sabre, numbers rolled down amid 
the rugged passes, and others were crushed into the earth by their 
companions. Harney's report conveys a just though faint idea of 
ihe scene: — "Perceiving that the enemy were retreating in disorder 
on one of the main causeways leading to the city of Mexico, I collected 
all the cavalry within my reach, consisting of parts of Captain Ker's 
company 2d dragoons, Captain Kearny's company 1st dragoons, and 
Captains McReynolds and Duperu's companies of the 3d dragoons, 
and pursued them vigorously until we were halted by the discharge 
of the batteries at their gate. Many of the enemy were overtaken in 
the pursuit and cut down by our sabres. I cannot speak in terms 
too complimentary of the manner in which this charge was executed. 
My only difficulty was in restraining the impetuosity of my men and 
officers, who seemed to vie with each other, who should be foremost in 
the pursuit. Captain Kearny gallantly led his squadron into the very 
tntrenchments of the enemy, and had the misfortune to lose an arm from 
a grape-shot fired from a gun at one of the main gates of the capital." 

N taking a view of this day's opera- 
tions the mind seems scarcely able 
to grasp the magnitude and im- 
portance of the American vic- 
tories. Any one of the great 
events of August 20th, performed 
by itself, would have struck the 
civilized world as one of the 
greatest feats of modern warfare, 
worthy of being recorded on the 
same historic page with those of 
Cortes or Napoleon. But the 
whole taken together, stagger and perplex by their very magnitude, 
2y2 




534 RESULTS OF THE BATTLE. 

like the distances spoken of by astronomers, which although heard of 
with indifference would, if separated into appreciable fractions, over- 
whelm the imagination. Defences which had cost the greatest chief 
of Mexico incessant labour, which had drawn forth the utmost skill 
and exertion of the enemy, and were regarded as impregnable, were 
in a few hours demolished or captured. In one day the strength of 
Mexico was broken. A loss so utter was regarded by its very suf- 
ferers as a mere dream, something which could not be. Santa Anna 
was saved from despair, only because the suddenness of the blow 
deprived him of an opportunity to feel the actual extent of his loss. 
It was virtually the conquest of the capital, and had the Mexicans 
been wise, or even possessed common sense, the war would then have 
terminated. There was reason for the triumphant language of the 
intrepid general-in-chief, while summing up the results of victory : — 
"It (the army) has, in a single day, in many battles as often defeated 
thirty-two thousand men ; made about three thousand prisoners, in- 
cluding eight generals, (two of them ex-presidents,) and two hundred 
and five other officers ; killed or wounded four thousand of all 
ranks, besides entire corps dispersed and dissolved ; captured thirty- 
seven pieces of ordnance — more than trebling our siege train and 
field-batteries — with a large number of small arms, a full supply of 
ammunition of every kind. These great results have overwhelmed 
the enemy." 

Similar language is used by all the superior officers, in describing 
their respective operations, and the gallantry of their troops. " When 
I recur to the nature of the ground, and the fact that the divison 
(two thousand six hundred strong of all arms) was engaged from two 
to two and a half hours in a hand to hand conflict with from seven 
to nine thousand of the enemy, having the advantage of position, and 
occupying regular works — which our engineers will say were most 
skilfully constructed — the mind is filled with wonder, and the heart 
with gratitude to the brave officers and soldiers whose steady and in- 
domitable valour has, under such circumstances, aided in achieving re- 
sults so honourable to our country — results not accomplished, however, 
without the sacrifice of many valuable lives. The little professional 
skill the commander may have possessed was intensely exerted to 
spare the men ; and yet, with the utmost care, we have to mourn 
the loss, in killed and wounded, of thirteen officers and three hun- 
dred and thirty-six rank and file. Our country will lament the fate 
and honour the memory of these brave men. A list of captured 
ordnance has already been handed in, as also of prisoners, from ge- 
nerals down to privates. Of prisoners, we paused to make but few ; 
although receiving the surrender of many, to disarm and pass them 



CAPTURE OF DESERTERS 



535 



was deemed sufficient. Among them, however, are secured twenty- 
seven deserters from our own army, arrayed in the most tawdry 
Mexican uniforms. These w r retches served the guns — the use of 
which they had been taught in our own service — and w r ith fatal effect, 
upon the persons of their former comrades! And now, in closing 
this report, hastily and inconveniently prepared, comes the pleasing 
and yet difficult task of bringing more particularly to the notice of 
the general-in-chief and government, the behaviour of the officers 
and men under my command. Every officer of every grade, and 
every soldier, from chief of brigade, through rank and file, to the 
humblest, have bravely and nobly done their duty ; and the delicacy 
is felt in full force of distinguishing even by a separation of one from 
the other, and yet those ip whose path Fortune threw her special 
favours are entitled to the benefit." 

Besides the deserters mentioned in this extract as part of Worth's 
prisoners, forty-two w r ere captured by Shields's troops, among whom 
was the notorious Captain O'Riley, who had deserted prior to the war, 
and fought with great bravery at Monterey and other places. These 
men were placed in close custody, in order to await their trial for 
desertion and treason. 

rENERAL QUITMAN during the opera- 
tions of the 20th, was unfortunately pre- 
vented from participating, by being 
placed with the 2d Pennsylvania volun- 
teers and a detachment of United States 
marines, at the depot of San Augustin. 
Here General Scott had placed his sick 
and wounded, together with the supply, 
siege and baggage trains. " Had these 
been lost the army would have been 
almost driven to despair; and consider- 
ing the enemy's very great excess of num- 
bers, and the many approaches to the depot, it might well have be- 
come emphatically the post of honour." 

In his report to the secretary of war, the general-in-chief does not 
omit to notice the skill and indefatigable exertions of the officers com- 
manding divisions and brigades. His testimony is the more valuable 
not only on account of his acknowledged discrimination with regard 
to character, but also from the fact of his being an eye-witness to 
most of the scenes of this eventful day. In like manner these officers 
speak of those whom they had the credit to command. The follow- 
ing extract, from the report of Major-General Worth, exhibits the high 
military qualities of his brother officers as well as of his personal staff: 




536 



WORTH S REPORT. 




Assistant Adjutant-General McCall. 



" The division commander cannot forego the opportunity presented, 
to acknowledge his obligations and express his admiration of the 
gallant bearing of Major-General Pillow, and Brigadier-Generals 
Shields, Cadwalader, and Pierce, with whom he had the gratification 
of concert and co-operation at various critical periods of the conflict. 
And it may now, in closing, be permitted to speak of the staff of the 
division, general and personal. The subordinate reports will be 
found to speak with one sentiment of Captain Mason, of engineers ; 
but these are not to debar my testimony and warm acknowledgments 
of the intelligent and gallant services of this accomplished officer — 
in the estimation of all, he has won high reputation, and established 
unequivocal claims to higher rank. Lieutenant Hardcastle, topo- 
graphical engineers, has been distinguished by zeal, intelligence, and 
gallantry, in his particular department, as also in combat. To Sur- 
geon Satterlee, senior medical officer, the highest praise is due. Cap- 
tain Myers, division quartermaster, has highly distinguished himself 
by energy and devotion in his particular department, and by gal- 



HARNEY S REPORT. 



537 



lantry in combat. Lieutenant Armstrong, division commissary, is 
also highly distinguished for energy and devotion in his particular 
department, and by gallantry in combat. Of the gallant and 
efficient assistance of Captain Mackall, assistant adjutant-general, 
(but of a different relation,) of Brevet Captain Pemberton, and Lieu- 
tenant Wood, aids-de-camp, it has been my pleasing duty heretofore 
to speak under similar circumstances. On this occasion, each mem- 
ber of the staff has fulfilled every duty of his station to the entire 
satisfaction of their chief, and established new claims to professional 
distinction and reward. To Lieutenant Semmes, of the navy, volun- 
teer aid-de-camp, the most cordial thanks of the general of the divi- 
sion are tendered for his uniform gallantry and assistance ; and the 
general-in-chief is respectfully requested to present the conduct of 
this accomplished and gallant officer to the special notice of the chief 
of this distinguished branch of the public service — our glorious 
navy." 

N speaking of a different 
branch of the service Colonel 
Harney says, " The dragoons 
from the commencement of 
the march from Puebla have 
been engaged on the most 
active and laborious service. 
These duties have been the 
more arduous in consequence of the small 
force of cavalry compared with the other 
arms of service. Small parties being con- 
stantly engaged in reconnoitering and on 
picket-guards, the utmost vigilance and 
precaution have been required to prevent surprise and disaster. * * 
On the 20th, although I had but four companies of my brigade with 
me on the field, the remainder were actively employed in the per- 
formance of important and indispensable duties. Captain Hardee, 
while watching the enemy with his company, near San Antonio, was 
attacked by a band of guerrillas ; but the enemy was promptly and 
handsomely repulsed, and a number of their horses, with arms and 
accoutrements, captured." 

Notwithstanding the exhausted condition of the American troops, 
they were eager to enter the capita] during the night of the 20th. 
It is probable that they might have done so without much additional 
loss. But to this General Scott would not consent, wisely restrain- 
ing their enthusiasm, in order to afford them an opportunity for re- 
pose. His efforts were warmly seconded by Mr. Trist, the American 

68 




538 



LOSS OF THE AMERICANS. 




Guerrillas. 

ambassador, and numerous friends of both his own and the Mexican 
armies. The different divisions were accordingly withdrawn to secure 
positions, and every preparation made for the comfort of the wounded, 
the repose of the troops, and for acting on the morrow as circum- 
stances might warrant.* 

The loss of the Mexicans in the battles of August has already been 
stated. That of their antagonists was one hundred and thirty-seven, 
including fourteen officers killed ; sixty-two officers and eight hun- 
dred and fifteen privates wounded, and thirty-eight rank and file 
missing. The officers were among the most valuable in the service, 
including the lamented Colonel P. M. Butler, of South Carolina, 
killed, Colonels Burnett and Dickinson wounded, Captains Hanson 
and Kearny, Major Mills, and many others. The largest number 



* We have stated it in the text as probable, that General Scott could have entered the 
city of Mexico, on the evening of the 20th, without much additional loss. We wish 
the qualifying term to be used in its utmost latitude. It requires no straining of facts or 
suppositions to believe, on the other hand, that the probability was a faint one, and that 
the cannon other than Churubusco's, might have unexpectedly glared upon the Ameri- 
cans, in case of a night attack. The real truth is, that the defences of the city, at that 
time, have never been ascertained, either by our army or nation ; and when we reflect on 
the nature of the subsequent operations, there is ample room for the friends of humanity 
to thank General Scott for his timely halt in the full flush of victory. 



NUMBER OF AMERICANS. 



539 




Colonel Burnett. 



actually engaged with the enemy was eight thousand five hundred ; 
who together with the small garrison of San Augustin, and the sick, 
formed the entire strength of the army which stormed Contreras and 
Churubusco. 

A cotemporary remarks as follows on this subject: — "The first 
question that arises is, could General Scott have entered Mexico 
on the night of the 20th ? His soldiers had been watching, march- 
ing, fasting, and fighting for more than thirty-six hours ; over a 
thousand of his small force were killed or disabled, and the heights 
of Chapultepec and the line of the garitas were still before him, 
capable, as was afterwards shown, of making a strong defence. How 
easy soever the achievement may seem to an editor in his closet, 
we apprehend that it was not a labour to be undertaken by a general 
in the field. The Mexican army which defended Churubusco, though 
defeated, was not destroyed; it retreated towards the third and 
strongest line of defence, and was, or could easily have been, rallied 
behind its batteries. For General Scott to have attempted to enter 



540 REMARKS. 

Mexico on the night of the 20th of August, it appears to us, would 
have been an act of desperation which nothing could have justified 
but the exceedingly improbable result of success. Had he undertaken 
it and failed, the warriors of the quill would have been the first to 
discover and expose the madness of the act. They would have 
inquired why he could not have waited until morning ; why, with 
half famished and exhausted troops, with the wounded calling for 
assistance, the dead unburied, and the living scarce able to drag one 
leg after the other, he had marched against strong works and a 
densely populated city, when one night's rest would have quadrupled 
the efficiency of his force ? And the voice of censure would have 
been as general as it would probably have been deserved. 

" The conclusion has thus been forced upon us, that General 
Scott was obliged to pause for breath after the continued operations 
of the 19th and 20th, which terminated in the terrible slaughter of 
Churubusco. 

" But that same evening he received a flag of truce from the enemy, 
asking for an armistice and proposing peace. Representations were 
at the same time made to him by those connected with the British 
embassy, that there was every probability that negotiations would 
terminate favourably and honourably to all parties. The American 
commander was placed in a position of great delicacy and responsi- 
bility. It was his ardent desire to terminate the war, spare the lives 
of his soldiers, and avoid the infliction of unnecessary injury, even 
upon the foe. He had good reason to believe that by granting the 
armistice all these objects would be attained ; and he did grant it, 
making it terminable in forty-eight hours. What would have been 
said of him had he refused ? He must, in that case, either have 
taken the city or failed in the attempt. If the former, we would have 
been precisely in the condition in which we are at present, and 
General Scott would have been accused of sacrificing the lives of his 
countrymen, and unnecessarily prolonging the war, to promote his 
own ambitious aims, and gratify the pernicious vanity of claiming the 
conqueror's rank with Cortes. Not one in fifty of those who have 
now discovered that all negotiation with Mexico was an idle farce, 
but would have been certain that, had the Mexican proposition been 
entertained, we should have had an honourable and permanent 
peace. But in the hazards of war, General Scott might have been 
repulsed on the morning of the 21st, and then imagination cah 
scarcely depict the execrations which would have been poured upon 
his head. Whatever he might have done, it will thus be seen, he 
would have exposed himself to animadversion and misconstruction ; 
to the idle comments of the unthinking, and the malicious remarks 



REMARKS. 



541 



of the envious. For our own part, we are willing to believe that 
General Scott acted as every hero and patriot would have done, 
placed in his position, and burdened with his responsibilities ; at any 
rate, we must see something stronger than has yet appeared against 
him, to suspect that he acted with want of judgment or want of zeal." 
Sentiments similar to those of this extract were echoed from every 
quarter of the Union ; so that the military critics who had endea- 
voured to depreciate the importance, and hide the magnitude of 
such events as those of Contreras and Churubusco, could gain no 
hearing from the public. The envious voice of detraction was 
drowned in shouts of exultation and joy, which ran through every 
city, town, and hamlet of our wide-spread country. 





Nicholas P. Trist. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



THE ARMISTICE. 




[HE office of General Scott, as commander of the Ame« 
rican forces in Mexico, imposed upon him the gravest 
duties and responsibilities, and rendered the greatest 
prudence necessary in every act. His reluctance to 
make an attempt upon the Mexican capital on the 
night of the 20th, besides being dictated by the hu- 
manity for which he has ever been remarkable, was, in no less 
a degree, the result of policy, and obedience to previous orders 
from government. Ever keeping in mind the repeated directions 
of the president to conquer a peace, he had, at each step of his pro- 
(542) 



NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. 



543 




General Quitman. 



gress from the coast, used every effort to open negotiations for an 
honourable adjustment of the difficulties between the two nations. 
The mission of Mr. Trist was directed to the same object. This 
gentleman had reached Vera Cruz from the United States, in July, 
and after remaining there for some time, had joined the army and 
marched with it towards the capital. Conceiving that, after the losses 
of the 19th and 20th of August, the enemy would be willing to open 
negotiations for peace, he was earnest in his representations to the 
general of the propriety of affording the opportunity for so desirable 
an issue. Accordingly, before the following morning, offers for a 
temporary cessation of hostilities were interchanged between the two 
commanders, and commissioners appointed to negotiate the armis- 
tice. Generals Quitman, Smith, and Pierce, were named on the part 
of the Americans ; and Ignacio de Mora y Villamil, and Benito 
Quijano, on that of the Mexicans. On the 22d, these officers met at 
Tacubaya, and, after considerable discussion, agreed upon the fol- 
lowing articles : 

1. Hostilities shall instantly and absolutely cease between the 



644 TERMS OF THE ARMISTICE 

armies of the United States of America and the United Mexican 
States, within thirty leagues of the capital of the latter states, to allow 
time to the commissioners appointed by the United States, and the 
commissioners to be appointed by the Mexican republic, to negotiate. 

2. The armistice shall continue as long as the commissioners of 
the two governments may be engaged on negotiations, or until the 
commander of either of the said armies shall give formal notice to 
the other of the cessation of the armistice, and for forty-eight hours 
after such notice. 

3. In the mean time neither army shall, within thirty leagues of 
the city of Mexico, commence any new fortification or military work 
of offence or defence, or do any thing to enlarge or strengthen 
any existing work or fortification of that character within the said 
limits. 

4. Neither army shall be reinforced within the same. Any rein- 
forcements in troops or munitions of war, other than subsistence now 
approaching either army, shall be stopped at the distance of twenty- 
eight leagues from the city of Mexico. 

5. Neither army, or any detachment from it, shall advance be* 
yond the line it at present occupies. 

6. Neither army, or any detachment or individual of either, shall 
pass the neutral limits established by the last article, except under a 
flag of truce, bearing the correspondence between the two armies, or 
on the business authorized by the next article, and individuals of 
either army who may chance to straggle within the neutral limits, 
shall, by the opposite party, be kindly warned off or sent back to 
their own armies under flags of truce. 

7. The American army shall not by violence obstruct the passage, 
from the open country into the city of Mexico, of the ordinary sup- 
plies of food necessary to the consumption of its inhabitants, or the 
Mexican army within the city ; nor shall the Mexican authorities, 
civil or military, do any act to obstruct the passage of supplies, from 
the city or the country, needed by the American army. 

8. All American prisoners of war remaining in the hands of the 
Mexican army, and not heretofore exchanged, shall immediately, or 
as soon as practicable, be restored to the American army, against a 
like number, having regard to rank, of Mexican prisoners captured 
by the American army. 

9. All American citizens who were established in the city of 
Mexico prior to the existing war, and who have since been expelled 
from that city, shall be allowed to return to their respective business 
or families therein, without delay or molestation. 

10. The better to enable the belligerent armies to execute these 



TERMS OF THE ARMISTICE. 545 

articles, and to favour the great object of peace, it is further agreed 
between the parties, that any courier with despatches that either 
army shall desire to send along the line from the city of Mexico or 
its vicinity, to and from Vera Cruz, shall receive a safe conduct from 
the commander of the opposing army. 

11. The administration of justice between Mexicans, according to< 
the general and state constitutions and laws, by the local authorities 
of the towns and places occupied by the American forces, shall not 
be obstructed in any manner. 

12. Persons and property shall be respected in the towns and 
places occupied by the American forces. No person shall be mo- 
lested in the exercise of his profession ; nor shall the services of any 
one be required without his consent. In all cases where services 
are voluntarily rendered, a just price shall be paid, and trade remain 
unmolested. 

13. Those wounded prisoners who may desire to remove to some 
more convenient place, for the purpose of being cured of their wounds, 
shall be allowed to do so without molestation, they still remaining 
prisoners. 

14. Those Mexican medical officers who may wish to attend the 
wounded, shall have the privilege of doing so if their services be 
required. 

15. For the more perfect execution of this agreement, two com- 
missioners shall be appointed, one by each party, who, in case of 
disagreement, shall appoint a third. 

16. This convention shall have no force or effect unless approved 
by their excellencies, the commanders respectively of the two 
armies, within twenty-four hours, reckoning from 6 o'clock, A. M., 
of the 22d day of August, 1847. 

On the presentation of this instrument to General Scott, he ad- 
dressed the following note to Santa Anna and the commissioners : — 
" Considered, approved, and ratified, with the express understanding 
that the word 'supplies,' as used the second time, without qualifica- 
tion, in the seventh article of this military convention — American 
copy — shall be taken to mean, (as in both the British and American 
armies,) arms, munition, clothing, equipments, subsistence, (for men,) 
forage, and in general all the wants of an army. The word ' sup- 
plies,' in the Mexican copy, is erroneously translated < viveres,' in- 
stead of recursos.' " 

To this Santa Anna replied in the following note : — " Ratified, sup- 
pressing the 9th article, and explaining the fourth to the effect that 
the temporary peace of this armistice shall be observed in the capital, 
and twenty-eight leagues around it; and agreeing that the word 
2z2 69 



546 



APPOINTMENT OF COMMISSIONERS. 





supplies' shall be translated 'recursos,' and that it comprehends 
every thing which the army may need except arms and ammunition " 
1 hese conditions were ratified by General Scott, and the corrected 
™-!„ , f , the armistice si g ned b y both commanders. 

MMEDIATELY after the con- 
clusion of this meeting, com- 
missioners were appointed by 
the civil government of Mex- 
ico, to open negotiations with 
Mr. Trist for a permanent treaty of peace. 
They met on the 25th. Both parties were 
evidently anxious for peace ; but unfortu- 
nately the question of boundary — always a 
vexed one — arose, in its most aggravated 
form, that of a cession by Mexico of the 
disputed territory in Texas to the United States. The substance of 
Mr. Trist's proposal was, that the boundary line of the two republics 
should run up the middle of the Rio Grande to the limits of New 
Mexico, then turning to the westward, take the course of the Gila 
and the Lower Colorado, and through the mouth of the latter river 
down the middle of the Californian gulf into the Pacific. This would 
have brought the south-western boundary line of the United States 
about ten degrees farther south, depriving Mexico of all Upper and 
Lower California, as well as of the districts on the Rio Grande, and 
leaving her the Gila for her northern boundary, at the point where 
the present frontier of Sonora marks her settled territories. For the 
region thus acquired by the United States, Mr. Trist offered a liberal 
sum, to be paid to Mexico at such time as might afterwards be agreed 
upon. To all this the Mexican commissioners consented, excepting 
the clause relating to the Rio Grande as the western boundary. It 
will be remembered that, immediately previous to the conclusion of 
the annexation treaty, by which Texas became a part of the United 
States, Mexico had declared her willingness to acknowledge the in- 
dependence of her rebellious province on condition that the latter 
would remain a sovereign state, and take measures for settling the 
disputed boundary question. On this subject the Mexicans had always 
evinced a jealous tenacity approaching to infatuation. They claimed 
the whole territory as far as the Nueces, or none. It is highly pro- 
bable that, had the United States offered them this river as a 
boundary after the victory of Cerro Gordo, or even of Vera Cruz, it 
would have been accepted. It was on this rock that the hopes 'of 
the friends of peace were destined again to split. The lands of Cali- 
fornia, and the fine harbours of the Pacific, were incalculably more 




SCOTT'S NOTE TO SANTA ANNA. 547 

valuable than the sandy wastes along the Rio Grande ; yet, notwith- 
standing this, and in the face of the humbling proofs of the nation's 
inability to obtain more by force, Mexican pride remained inflexible 
and uncompromising, choosing rather to stake all upon the appa- 
rently hopeless issue of war, than consent to the dismemberment of 
her ancient territory. 

OTWITHSTANDING the many difficulties be- 
tween the commissioners, negotiations were con- 
tinued until the 2d of September, when Mr. Trist 
handed in his ultimatum, or final propositions, 
and the negotiators adjourned to meet on the 6th. 
Meanwhile the subject was referred to the su- 
preme Mexican authorities, for their decision. 
Before the second meeting of the commissioners, 
circumstances, not connected with their deliberations, occurred, 
which hastened the resumption of hostilities. In the early part of 
September, some infractions of the truce, respecting supplies from the 
city, were committed, followed by apologies from the enemy. These 
were overlooked by General Scott. But, on the 5th, the American 
general learned that, as soon as the ultimatum had been considered 
in a grand council of ministers and others, Santa Anna had, on the 
4th and 5th, actively commenced the strengthening of his military 
defences. This information was confirmed on the 6th, in conse- 
quence of which General Scott addressed to the Mexican commander 
the following note, dated on the same day: 

" The 7th article, as also the 12th — that stipulates that trade shall 
remain unmolested — of the armistice, or military convention, which I 
had the honour to ratify and to exchange with your excellency the 
24th ultimo, have been repeatedly violated, beginning soon after 
date, on the part of Mexico ; and I now have good reason to believe 
that, within the last forty-eight hours, if not earlier, the third article 
of that convention has been equally violated by the same party. 

" Those direct breaches of faith give to this army the most perfect 
right to resume hostilities against Mexico without any notice what- 
ever ; but, to allow time for possible explanation, apology, and repa- 
ration, I now give formal notice, that, unless full satisfaction on those 
allegations should be received by me before 12 o'clock, meridian, to- 
morrow, I shall consider the said armistice at an end from and after 
that hour." 

In his reply, (dated the same day, but not delivered till the 7th, ) 
Santa Anna expressed his astonishment at the reception of such ac- 
cusations, denying imperatively that the civil or military authorities 
had obstructed the passage of provisions, and affirming that the few 



548 SANTA ANNA'S REPLY TO SCOTT. 

cases where difficulties of the kind had occurred, had been owing to 
the imprudence of the American agent. In return, he accused 
General Scott of preventing the owners and managers of grain mills 
in the vicinity from furnishing any flour to the city. The remaining 
part of his letter contains the following strong, and, considering the 
condition of the Mexican nation at the time, remarkable language : 

" It is false that any new work or fortification has been undertaken, 
because one or two repairs have only served to place them in the 
same condition they were in on the day the armistice was entered 
into ; accident or the convenience of the moment having caused the 
destruction of the then existing works. I had very early notice of 
the establishment of the battery behind the mud wall of the house 
called Garay's, in the town occupied by you, and did not remonstrate, 
because the peace of two great republics could not be made to depend 
upon things grave in themselves, but of little value compared to the 
result in which all the friends of humanity and of the prosperity of 
the American continent take so great an interest. 

"It is not without great grief, and even indignation, that I have 
received communications from the cities and villages occupied by the 
army of your excellency, in relation to the violation of the temples 
consecrated to the worship of God, to the plunder of the sacred vases, 
and to the profanation of the images venerated by the Mexican peo- 
ple. Profoundly have I been afflicted by the complaints of fathers 
and husbands, of the violence offered to their daughters and wives ; 
and these same cities and villages have been sacked, not only in 
violation of the armistice, but of the sacred principles proclaimed and 
respected by civilized nations. I have observed silence to the pre- 
sent moment, in order not to obstruct the progress of negotiations 
which held out the hope of terminating a scandalous war, and one 
which your excellency has characterized so justly as unnatural. 

u But I shall desist offering apologies, because I cannot be blind 
to the truth, that the true cause of the threats of renewing hostilities, 
contained in the note of your excellency, is, that I have not been 
willing to sign a treaty which would lessen considerably not only the 
territory of the republic, but that dignity and integrity which all 
nations defend to the last extremity. And if these considerations 
have not the same weight in the mind of your excellency, the respon- 
sibility before the world, who can easily distinguish on whose side is 
moderation and justice, will fall upon you. 

"I flatter myself that your excellency will be convinced, on calm 
reflection, of the weight of my reasons. But if, by misfortune, you 
should seek only a pretext to deprive the first city of the American 
continent of an opportunity to free the unarmed population of the 



RESUMPTION OF HOSTILITIES. 



549 



horrors of war, there will be left me no other means of saving them 
but to repel force by force, with the decision and energy which my 
high obligations impose upon me." 

The accusations contained in this answer, General Scott pro- 
nounced as " absolutely and notoriously false, both in recrimination 
and explanation." The correspondence closed, and all hope of a 
satisfactory adjustment of the subjects of dispute being at an end, 
both parties prepared for another appeal to arms. 





(550) 




CHAPTER XXIX. 



STORMING OF MOLINO DEL REY. 



-^ N the 5th of September, one day previous 
< to the termination of the armistice, the 
American general learned that many church 
bells had been sent from the city to a 
foundry called Casa Mata, to be cast into 
guns, and that immense quantities of powder, balls, 
and other military stores were arriving at the same 
place. As soon as the truce terminated, General 
Scott determined on an immediate attack upon this place, hoping to 
deprive the enemy of their cannon and ammunition, both of which 
were at this time of the greatest importance to them. This determi- 
nation was further strengthened by the consideration that recent 
events had deprived the enemy of more than three-fourths of the guns 

C551) 




552 



MEXICAN POSITIONS. 




iWolino del Rey — Chapultepec in the distance. 



necessary to defend the strong works at the eight principal gates of 
the city, which rendered a free communication with the cannon 
foundry highly essential to Santa Anna's operations. This communi- 
cation could be cut off only by taking the formidable castle upon the 
heights of Chapultepec, situated between the city and Casa Mata, 
and overlooking both. For this dangerous operation the army was 
not altogether ready, and the earnest desire of General Scott was to 
avoid altogether, if possible, an attack upon this place, and approach 
the city by the distant southern approaches, should they be found less 
formidable. Preparatory to attempting this, he determined upon de- 
stroying the foundry and stores at Molino del Rey. The execution 
of this plan was intrusted to Brevet Major-General Worth. 

On the morning of the 7th, Captain Mason, of the engineers, made 
a close and daring reconnoissance of the lines collateral to Chapulte- 
pec, ascertaining the enemy's position to be as follows : — The left 
resting upon and occupying the strong stone buildings of Molino 
del Rey, near a grove at the foot of Chapultepec hill, and directly 
under the guns of its castle ; the right resting upon Casa Mata, at 
the base of a ridge sloping gradually from the heights above the vil- 
lage of Tacubaya to the plain below. Midway between these build- 
ings was the enemy's field-battery, supported on both sides by 
infantry. 




PREPARATION FOR THE ATTACK. 553 

HIS reconnoissance was repeated, and verified 
by Captain Mason and Colonel Duncan, on 
the afternoon of the same day — the result 
indicating that the centre was the enemy' 
weak point, and that of his flanks, the left 
bordering on Molino del Rey, was the 
stronger. Generals Scott and Worth accom- 
panied the engineers during the afternoon. 
The examination, however, was far from 
being satisfactory, since, although it afforded 
a fair observation of the configuration of the ground, and the extent 
of the enemy's forces, yet, on account of the defences being skilfully 
masked, only an imperfect idea was obtained of their actual strength. 
On the same afternoon, a large body of the enemy was seen 
hovering about Molino del Rey, within a mile and a third of Tacu- 
baya, where General Scott was stationed with his staff and Worth's 
division. They did not venture an attack, and the American com- 
mander would not derange his plans by offering battle. 

General Worth's division was reinforced by two hundred and 
seventy dragoons and mounted riflemen, under Major Sumner, Cad- 
walader's infantry and voltigeur regiments, seven hundred and eighty- 
four strong, three pieces of field artillery, under Captain Drum, and 
two twenty-four pound battering guns, under Captain Huger. The 
whole command, thus reinforced, numbered three thousand two hun- 
dred men. 

The orders of General Scott were that the division should attack 
and destroy the lines and defences between the Casa Mata and Mo- 
lino del Rey, capture the enemy's artillery, destroy the machinery 
and material supposed to be in the foundry, but under no circum- 
stances to make an attack upon Chapultepec. After carrying the 
works, the troops were to be withdrawn immediately to Tacubaya. 
The object of attack being connected with Chapultepec, it became 
necessary to isolate it from the defences of the castle. To effect this 
object, Colonel Garland's brigade, strengthened by two pieces of 
Captain Drum's battery, was posted on the right so as to intercept 
any reinforcements from Chapultepec, and be within sustaining dis- 
tance of the assaulting party, and Huger's battering guns. The latter 
were placed on the ridge, five or six hundred yards from Molino del 
Rey, so as to play upon and detach it from Chapultepec. The assault- 
ing party designed to act against the enemy's centre, consisting 
of five hundred picked men and officers, commanded by Brevet 
Major Wright, was stationed on the ridge to the left of the battering 
guns. Colonel Clarke's brigade, under Colonel Mcintosh, was 
3 A 70 



554 



STORMING OF MOLINO DEL REY. 



placed farther up the ridge, near Duncan's battery, so as either to 
protect the American left flank, to sustain the assaulting column, or 
to discomfit the enemy as circumstances would require. Cadwala- 
der's brigade was held in reserve, in a position on the ridge between 
the battering guns and Mcintosh's brigade, at easy supporting dis- 
tance from both. Major Sumner, with his cavalry, was ordered to the 
extreme flank, to act as his own judgment might dictate ; and the 
general disposition of the artillery was confided to Colonel Duncan. 

HESE preparations were designed 
and executed in the most desirable 
manner, exhibiting in the subse- 
quent result, the military abilities 
of the general who planned the 
whole attack, and of those who 
carried it into effect. The artil- 
lery was placed in the best possi- 
ble position for preventing the 
arrival of any support from the 
castle, by breaking the continuous 
line of defences leading to that 
place, and distracting the garrison 
during the charge of Wright's 
party. This was posted so as to 
experience the least difficulty from 
the nature of the ground, and the presence of the enemy's cavalry. 
The latter were watched by the intrepid Sumner, and at a well- 
chosen position, Mcintosh's troops were placed in general superin- 
tendence of the whole. But so strong were the Mexican defences, 
and throughout the whole line so skilfully masked, that but for a 
strong supporting reserve, Wright's charge — the soul of the entire 
assault — would probably have failed. Such support was afforded 
by Cadwalader's brigade, which during the action was called into 
active service, and contributed in no slight degree to victory. 

At three o'clock, A. M., of the 8th, the division commenced its 
march by columns, each taking a different route. So accurately had 
every thing been arranged, that notwithstanding the darkness of the 
night, and the irregularity of the ground, the troops at daylight were 
found posted in the different positions with as much precision as 
though on parade. Very soon after the dawn of day, the report of 
Huger's guns, opening upon Molino del Rey, gave the signal for 
attack. So heavy were the discharges, that in a short time masses 
of masonry fell with tremendous noise, and the whole line of intrench- 
ments began to shake. This, uniting with the roar of cannon, and 




STORMING OF MO LINO DEL REY. 



557 




cheering of soldiers, produced a scene of confusion peculiarly dis- 
tressing. The enemy answered each discharge in rapid succession, 
unfolding at intervals to the sight of their antagonists' batteries, and 
systems of defence of the strongest character, but hitherto masked. 

"N the interim, while the cannonade 
was going on, Major Wright was pre- 
paring his troops for the attack. Sta- 
tioned on an eminence, he had a full 
view of the artillery operations, and 
could determine with great ease, upon 
the exact direction in which to lead 
his men. All things being in readi- 
ness, he dashed down the slope, 
guided by Captain Mason and Lieu- 
tenant Foster, and followed by his 
whole command. At this stirring 
spectacle, the remainder of the divi- 
sion sent up a shout which momentarily drowned the roar of artil- 
lery ; while at the same moment, as though in desperate defiance, 
the central batteries of the enemy opened their fearful discharges, 
sweeping down man and officer in terrible and indiscriminate 
slaughter. The cheering died away at such a spectacle, and with 
unuttered forebodings, at the unexpected sight, the reserve and sup- 
port leaned forward to await the result. Yet in the midst of the un- 
expected showers of fire which were launched upon them, Wright 
and his gallant men rushed on, gained the lines, and sweeping 
through a storm of musketry and canister shot, drove infantry and 
artillerymen before them at the bayonet's point, seized the large 
field battery, drove off the cannoneers, and trailed its guns upon the 
retreating masses. 

But the battle was not yet decided. After retreating to a short 
distance, the enemy suddenly halted, rallied, and on observing the 
smallness of the force by which they had been attacked, returned 
with renewed energy to the conflict. Suddenly a flash, like light- 
ning, ran along their whole line, pouring forth a discharge which 
struck down eleven officers out of the fourteen composing the 
command, with non-commissioned officers and men in propor- 
tion. Brevet Major Wright, Captain Mason, and Lieutenant Foster 
were among the severely wounded. At the same time the win- 
dows and roofs of buildings were lined with infantry, who united 
their fire with that of the main body. At so overwhelming a loss, 
the party was thrown into confusion, and the eagle eye of Gene- 
ral Worth foresaw that another such discharge, would snatch victory 



558 



CAPTURE OF MOLINO DEL REY. 



from its grasp. Accordingly the right wing of Cadwalader's brigade, 
and the light battalion, held to cover Captain Huger's battery, were 
immediately ordered forward to its support. Coming rapidly into 
action, these troops reached the shattered remnant of Major Wright's 
party, at a most seasonable moment. The struggle with the enemy 
was close, but short. They were again routed, and their central 
positions fully carried and occupied. 

This victory gave the Americans an important station inside the 
enemy's works, and separated the Casa Mata from Molino del Rey, 
and its adjoining fortifications. These, therefore, formed two isolated 
points of attack, each of which could be attacked by a separate 
party, without danger from the other. 

The assault upon the enemy's left was intrusted to Garland's 
brigade, sustained by Drum's artillery. Here the struggle was ob- 
stinate and bloody. The manner in which the American guns were 
served drew forth shouts of applause from the whole army ; while, 
on the other hand, the powerful batteries of Molino del Rey were 
worked in a manner which evinced the determination of the enemy 
to regain the day. The loss of the assailants was heavy, but they 
at length succeeded in forcing the position and driving the garrison 
from their guns. The Mexicans fled towards Chapultepec, suffer- 
ing heavily from their own guns, which were turned upon them, and 
continued to fire until they were beyond reach. 

IMULTANEOUSLY with this as- 
sault, Duncan's battery opened upon 
the Mexican right, so as to mask 
an assault upon it, by Colonel Mcin- 
tosh. The whole field was now a 
scene of uproar, the battle raging, 
mostly of artillery, throughout the en- 
tire line of defences, from Casa Mata 
to Molino del Rey. As Mcintosh's 
troops moved to the attack, they came 
in front of Duncan's battery, which 
was consequently obliged to suspend 
its fire. The command then moved 
steadily to the assault. On approaching the Casa Mata, it was dis- 
covered to be, not an ordinary field intrenchment, as had been sup- 
posed, but a strong stone citadel, built in the Spanish style, with 
bastioned intrenchments and impassable ditches, which had recently 
been repaired and enlarged. The apparent difficulty of the under- 
taking was thus ten-fold increased ; but still the soldiers pressed on 
without the least diminution of ardour. The batteries of the enemv 




LOSS OF AMERICAN OFFICERS. 



559 



were for a long time silent, as though their attendants were doubtful 
whether to open or not. But this was but the deceitful allurement, 
whose object was to get the prey completely within grasp. On ar- 
riving within musket- shot, the Americans were greeted with a storm 
of grape and canister, before which their front ranks melted away, 
and many of the best officers were killed or wounded. Without 
intermission was this kept up, until their lacerated columns had 
reached the slope of the parapet leading to the citadel. Here amid 
the withering showers which smote their ranks, the exhausted troops 
were obliged to halt. Their advance had been over a long rugged road, 
in front of their own batteries and part of the time without their sup- 
port. A large proportion of their number had been killed or wounded, 
including the three senior officers, Brevet Colonel Mcintosh, Brevet 
Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, and Major Waite, — the second killed, and 
the first and last seriously wounded. As they stood for a few mo- 
ments on the slope, the Casa Mata continued to pour its fire upon 
them, and perplexed with the change of commanders consequent on 
the fall of Colonel Mcintosh, the brigade fell into confusion, and 
withdrew to Duncan's battery. 

latter branch of service, from the 
time of its being covered by Mcin- 
tosh's troops, so as to prevent a con- 
tinuance of its fire on the enemy, had 
been arduously engaged in another 
part of the field. A large cavalry 
force had appeared outside the 
enemy's works, on the extreme left 
of the American line ; and against 
this Colonel Duncan moved, supported 
by the voltigeurs of Cadwalader's 
brigade. As the cavalry galloped 
into canister range, the whole bat- 
tery opened upon them with great 
effect, driving back their heavy 
squadrons in disorder. At this mo- 
ment, Major Sumner, who had been carefully watching the enemy 
all day, moved to the front and changed direction in admirable 
order, under a most appalling fire from Casa Mata, of which he was 
within pistol range. His loss was very severe, numbering five 
officers, thirty-nine soldiers, and one hundred and four horses. The 
exposure was, however, unavoidable, in consequence of a deep 
ditch, which it was impossible to cross, until he had arrived close to 
the Mexican intrenchments. After passing the ravine, he formed 




560 



CAPTURE OF THE CASA MAT A. 



his command in line, facing the enemy's cavalry, and prepared to 
receive their charge. At seeing this they suddenly halted, and 
shortly afterwards retired. The major continued to hold his com- 
mand on the left flank, until the battle was won, changing his posi- 
tion from time to time, with every movement of the cavalry. During 
the whole time, his men behaved with coolness and bravery ; and 
notwithstanding the number and rapidity of their evolutions, they 
succeeded, chiefly through the indefatigable exertions of Captain Har- 
dee, in avoiding all confusion. The major was joined, soon after the 
commencement of the action, by Lieutenant-Colonel Moore, who, 
although declining the command, remained with him during the day. 
Colonel Harney, who was unwell, also came upon the field during 
the action, and after observing the arrangements, expressed himself 
satisfied, and left Sumner to execute them, "for which," archly 
observes the major, in his report, "I am deeply obliged to him." 

HE repulse of the second brigade 
enabled Colonel Duncan to re- 
open his battery upon the Casa 
Mata, which the enemy, after a 
short and well-directed fire, aban- 
doned. The Americans rushed 
into the works with loud cheers, 
seized the cannon, and turned 
them upon their former owners. 

The enemy was now driven from 
every part of the field, leaving 
his strong lines in possession of the 
assailants. The quantity of stores 
within the two principal works 
fell far short of what had been 
anticipated, thus proving false many 
of the reports previously received upon that subject. In obedience 
to the commands of General Scott, the Casa Mata was blown up, and 
such of the captured ammunition as could not be used, together with 
the cannon-moulds found in Molino del Rey, was destroyed. 

Thus, after several hours incessant cannonading and fighting, the 
Americans stormed and carried an entire line of strong fortresses, de- 
fended by fourteen thousand men, securing eight hundred prisoners, 
all the guns, a large quantity of small arms, ammunition and other 
stores. Fifty-two commissioned officers were among the taken. 
Generals Valdarez and Leon, the second and third in command, were 
killed. The total loss of the enemy was about three thousand, ex- 
clusive of two thousand who deserted after the rout. 




COMMENDATION OF OFFICERS. 



561 




HESE great results were not obtained 
without a proportionate loss on the 
part of the victors. Besides being 
numerically great, the list of killed 
and wounded embraced the names 
of some of the brightest ornaments^ 
of the service. Of the first were 
Captains Merrill, E. K. Smith, 
Ayres, and Lieutenants Strong, Far- 
ry, Burwell, and Burbank. " All 
of these gallant men," says General 
Worth, "fell as, when it pleased 
God, they would have wished to fall, fighting bravely at the head of 
their troops, leaving a bright example to the service, and spotless 
names to the cherished recollections of comrades." Among the 
wounded were brevet Major Wright, Captains Mason, Walker, and 
Cady, and Lieutenants Shackleford, Daniels, Clarke, Snelling, and 
Foster, all of whom highly distinguished themselves. 

The conduct of both cavalry and artillery was admirable ; and the 
same meed of praise is due to Sumner's dragoons. General Cad- 
walader rendered most efficient service, and received the encomiums 
of General Worth. Among the other officers similarly noticed, were 
Colonel Garland, Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan, brevet Colonel Mcin- 
tosh, Captains Huger and Drum, Lieutenants Kirkham, Nichols, and 
Thome, (the latter of whom captured a regimental standard,) and the 
officers of Cadwalader's brigade. Worth withdrew his brigade to 
Tacubaya. The operations of the day had thrown the enemy on the 
defensive, and left no further obstruction to an attack upon the city, 
save the castle of Chapultepec. Knowing the strength of this fortress, 
General Scott wisely refrained from an immediate attack, preferring to 
give his troops the repose which they so much needed, rather than 
risk disabling his army by over exertion. The dead were collected and 
buried, the wounded rendered comfortable, and each division, with 
its officers, quartered where they could be protected from the weather. 





ulilliJlUlllUlllllP 
(562) 




Mexican Costumes. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



STORMING OF CHAPULTEPEC. 



HE taking of Molino del Rey 
had cut off the fortress of Cha- 
pultepec from all immediate 
connection with any of the sur- 
rounding fortifications. The 
assault upon it was the next 
great event of the war, and the 
first of that brilliant series to 
which General Scott gives the 
general name, Battle of Mexico. 
Of that momentous action, 
which continued for more than 
two days, the storming of the castle is the only occurrence which is 
capable of separate description. The difficulty of conveying an ade- 
quate idea of the actions of August has been formerly mentioned ; 
but the events of Contreras and Churubusco are simple when com- 
pared to those attending the taking of the capital. The plan of 

(5631 




564 DEFENCES AT THE CAPITAL. 

attack in the latter brought out the abilities of every officer in the 
army, simultaneously, and, with but few exceptions, in independent 
commands. 

Immediately after the victory of the 8th, General Scott commenced 
a series of strict and daring reconnoissances of the ground in the 
vicinity of the capital, and the principal works of the enemy. These 
were conducted by the able engineers, Captain Lee, and Lieutenants 
Stephens, Tower, and Beauregard. This service was, in point of danger, 
equal to battle, stations being frequently chosen within full range of 
the enemy's batteries, and even within musketry range of the works. 
The observations were directed principally to the southern defences, 
the strongly fortified gates of Piedad, San Antonio, San Angel, or Nino 
Perdido, and Paseo de la Vega. These presented a chain of ditches, 
intrenchments, gullies, breastworks, towers, and mines, appalling to 
any general save one of the first military genius and experience. 
" This city," says the American commander, while speaking of these 
defences, "stands on a slight swell of ground, near the centre of an 
irregular basin, and is girdled with a ditch in its greatest extent — a 
navigable canal of great breadth and depth — very difficult to bridge 
in the presence of an enemy, and serving at once for drainage, cus- 
tom-house purposes, and military defence, having eight entrances or 
gates, over arches, each of which we found defended by a system of 
strong works, that seemed to require nothing but some men and guns 
to be impregnable. 

" Outside and within the cross-fires of those gates, we found, to 
the south, other obstacles but little less formidable. All the ap- 
proaches near the city are over elevated causeways, cut in many 
places, (to oppose us,) and flanked on both sides by ditches, also of 
unusual dimensions. The numerous cross-roads are flanked in like 
manner, having bridges at the intersections, recently broken. The 
meadows thus checkered are, moreover, in many spots, under water 
or marshy; for, it will be remembered, we were in the midst of the 
wet season, though with less rain than usual, and we could not wait 
for the fall of the neighbouring lakes, and the consequent drainage of 
the wet grounds at the edge of the city — the lowest in the whole basin." 

An attack upon the city in this quarter would perhaps have been 
successful ; but it would have been at a loss greater than has ever 
yet been experienced by an American army. General Scott, there- 
fore, with that regard to the lives of his soldiers which has ever 
formed a prominent feature in his character, and rejecting the vain 
glory acquired by gaining a great battle at any expense, promptly 
determined to avoid the network of obstacles on the south, and seek 
less unfavourable approaches by a sudden inversion towards the west 



SCOTTS STRATAGEM. 



565 




\0 economize the lives of our gallant 
officers and men," says the general, 
" as well as to insure success, it be 
came indispensable that this resolu- 
tion should be long masked from the 
enemy ; and again, that the new 
movement, when discovered, should 
be mistaken for a feint, and the old 
as indicating our true and ultimate 
point of attack." This design could 
be executed only by means of a well 
conducted stratagem, whose most 
important part would be to prevent 
the enemy from removing his guns 
in the southern defences to the new 
point of attack. This was executed 
in a manner which, while securing the lives of the troops, threw the 
balance of advantages in their hands, and afforded one more instance of 
the eminent scientific abilities of the man who, with a handful of troops, 
had fought his way through hostile armies to the gates of the enemy's 
capital. We give the arrangements of his plan in his own words : 

" Accordingly, on the spot, the 11th, I ordered Quitman's division 
from Coyoacan, to join Pillow, by daylight, before the southern gates, 
and then that the two major-generals, with their divisions, should, 
by night, proceed (two miles) to join me at Tacubaya, where I was 
quartered with Worth's division. Twiggs, with Riley's brigade, and 
Captains Taylor's and Steptoe's field-batteries — the latter of twelve- 
pounders — was left in front of those gates to manceuver, to threaten, 
or to make false attacks, in order to occupy and deceive the enemy. 
Twiggs's other brigade (Smith's) was left at supporting distance in 
the rear, at San Angel, till the morning of the 13th, and also to sup- 
port our general depot at Mixcoac. The stratagem against the 
south was admirably executed throughout the 12th, and down to 
the afternoon of the 13th, when it was too late for the enemy to 
recover from the effects of his delusion. 

" The first step in the new movement was to carry Chapultepec, a 
natural and isolated mound, of great elevation, strongly fortified at 
its base, on its acclivities and heights. Besides a numerous garrison, 
here was the military college of the republic, with a large number 
of sub-lieutenants and other students. Those works were within 
direct gunshot of the village of Tacubaya, and, until carried, we 
could not approach the city on the west without making a circuit too 
wide and too hazardous. 
3B 



566 



PLAN OF OPERATIONS. 



"In the course of the same night, (that of the 11th,) heavy bat- 
teries within easy ranges, were established. No. 1, on our right, 
under the command of Captain Drum, 4th artillery, (relieved the 
next day, for some hours, by Lieutenant Andrews, of the 3d,) and 
No. 2, commanded by Lieutenant Hagner, ordnance — both supported 
by Quitman's division. Nos. 3 and 4, on the opposite side, sup- 
ported by Pillow's division, were commanded, the former by Captain 
Brooks and Lieutenant S. S. Anderson, 2d artillery, alternately, and 
the latter by Lieutenant Stone, ordnance. The batteries were traced 
by Captain Huger and Captain Lee, engineer, and constructed by 
them, with the able assistance of the young officers of those corps 
and the artillery. 

" To prepare for an assault, it was foreseen that the play of the 
batteries might run into the second day ; but recent captures had not 
only trebled our siege pieces, but also our ammunition ; and we knew 
that we should greatly augment both by carrying the place. I was, 
therefore, in no haste in ordering an assault before the works were 
well crippled by our missiles." 

HE disposition of forces thus 
sketched should be borne in 
mind while taking a survey of 
the subsequent operations. The 
whole army was divided into 
two great sections, each per- 
forming duties distinct from the 
other, yet essential to the suc- 
cess of the final operations. 
One of these amused the enemy, 
and prevented him from em- 
ploying, to much effect, his 
strongest forces ; the other con- 
ducted the assault at numerous 
points of the western defences. 
The former duty was intrusted to General Twiggs, with Riley's bri- 
gade and two batteries ; while Smith's brigade remained as a sup- 
porting reserve. At the same time, the divisions of Quitman and 
Pillow marched by night from the neighbourhood of the southern de- 
fences, and joined General Scott at Tacubaya, preparatory to the 
assault upon Chapultepec. This hill lay between Twiggs's station 
and the western portion of the city, whither General Scott designed 
to make his attack. To pass between it and the city wall was im- 
possible ; and to march around on the opposite side would have con- 
sumed so much time as to unfold the stratagem to the enemy, and 




STORMING OF CHAPULTEPEC. 



567 




Chapultepec. 



thus defeat one important object of it. There remained, therefore, 
no alternative but to storm the fortress, since, by so doing, the enemy 
would still be in the dark as to the ultimate point of attack, and might 
easily be induced to believe that, in case of capturing it, the Ameri- 
cans would resume their station near the southern gates. Subsequent 
disclosures proved that they laboured under this delusion. 

The two batteries of Captain Drum and Lieutenant Hagner, sup- 
porting Quitman's divison, and those of Captain Brooks and Lieute- 
nant Stone, supporting Pillow, opened on the castle, early on the 
12th. The bombardment and cannonade were superintended by 
Captain Huger, and continued during the whole day. During the 
continuance of this dreary work, Twiggs was actively plying his guns 
on the southern side, in order to prevent the arrival of reinforcements 
at Chapultepec. The bombardment at length became so severe, that 
all the garrison, excepting a number sufficient to manage, abandoned 
their works, and formed on a secure position of the hill, where they 
could easily return in case of an assault. As night approached, the 
fire of the assailants necessarily ceased ; but it was observed that a 
good impression had been made upon the castle and its outworks. 

No changes of position were made during the night of the 12th, 
so that early on the following morning the guns reopened upon the 
castle. At the same moment those of Twiggs were heard battering 
the gates of San Antonio and Piedad. The Mexicans were again 



568 



STORMING OF CHAPULTEPEC. 



observed upon the hill, holding themselves in readiness for an 
assault. 

Meanwhile the general-in-chief was actively preparing to storm 
the work. The force designed for this service consisted of two 
columns, acting independently and on different sides of the hill. 
The first was led by General Pillow, the second by General Quit- 
man — the commands of these officers being reinforced by corps from 
other divisions. On the previous evening, Worth had received orders 
to designate a party from his division to assist Pillow, and imme- 
diately organized a command of two hundred and sixty men, with 
ten officers, under Captain McKenzie. He was also advised to take 
position with the remainder of his division and support Pillow, in 
case that officer should request his aid. He accordingly chose a 
favourable position, and reported himself to Pillow. At the same time 
Smith's brigade was ordered to proceed towards the hill and support 
Quitman's column. These troops arrived on the following morning, 
after marching over an exposed road two miles in length. Twiggs 
also supplied a reinforcement to Quitman's storming column, about 
equal in number to that from Worth's division, and commanded by 
Captain Casey. 

The signal for the march of the storming parties was the momentary 
cessation of fire from the heavy batteries. At about eight o'clock 
on the morning of the 13th, General Scott dismissed an aid to Ge- 
neral Pillow, and another to Quitman, to inform them that this was 
about to be given. Immediately the whole field was covered with 
the troops of the assailing parties, moving into position. At the 
same moment a number of Mexican soldiers outside the fort, rushed 
into it and prepared to resist the assault. 

ENERAL PILLOW, in the morning, 
had placed two field-pieces of Ma- 
gruder's field-battery inside the Mo- 
lino del Rey, to clear a sand-bag 
breastwork which the enemy had 
constructed without the main wall sur- 
rounding Chapultepec, so as to annoy 
any party assailing the principal works. 
Through the houses and walls of the 
mills, he had also placed a howitzer 
G \f ^l^S^^J^ battery, to aid in driving the enemy 

from a strong intrenchment which ex- 
tended nearly across the front of the forest and commanded the only 
approach to Chapultepec on that side. At the same time he placed 
in position four companies of the voltigeur regiment, under Lieute- 




STORMING OF CHAPULTEPEC. 



569 




nant-Colonel Johnstone, with instructions to advance by a rapid 
movement, on the outside and enter the inclosure, after it had been 
gained by the storming parties. Four other companies of voltigeurs 
were placed under Colonel Andrews, at a narrow gateway opening 
from the rear of the mills, with orders to advance in front, and uniting 
with Colonel Johnstone's command, to deploy as skirmishers and 
drive a body of the enemy from some large trees among which it 
had taken shelter. 

VERY thing being now in readiness, the 
heavy batteries were silenced, and imme- 
diately the storming columns rushed for- 
ward to the attack. Knowing too well 
the object of this movement, the Mexi- 
cans opened all their batteries, the fires 
from which swept every approach and 
glared in front of the advancing troops 
like a volcano. On they rushed, driving 
the enemy from the woods, and reaching the 
hill, commenced the ascent. At this mo- 
ment, General Pillow was struck from his 
horse by a grape-shot, and the command 
devolved on Cadwalader. The former general would not leave the 
field ; but employed some of his men to carry him up the hill, in 
order that he might be a witness of the result. Under command of 
the intrepid officer from Pennsylvania, the troops entered the enemy's 
drizzling fires, and laboured over the steep rocks. " The broken 
acclivity," says the general-in-chief, while describing Cadwalader's 
advance, "was still to be ascended, and a strong redoubt midway to 
be carried, before reaching the castle on the heights. The advance of 
our brave officers, though necessarily slow, was unwavering, over 
rocks, chasms, and mines, and under the hottest fire of cannon and 
musketry. The redoubt now yielded to resistless valour, and the 
shouts that followed announced to the castle the fate that impended. 
The enemy were steadily driven from shelter to shelter. The retreat 
allowed not time to fire a single mine without the certainty of blow- 
ing up friend and foe. Those who at a distance attempted to apply 
matches to the long trains were shot down by our men. There was 
death below as well as above ground. At length the ditch and wall 
of the main work were reached; the scaling-ladders were brought 
up and planted by the storming parties ; some of the daring spirits 
first in the assault were cast down — killed or wounded ; but a lodg- 
ment was soon made ; streams of heroes followed ; all opposition 
was overcome, and several of our regimental colours were flung out 
3b2 72 



570 



QUIT MANS OPERATIONS. 




from the upper walls, amidst long continued shouts and cheers, which 
sent dismay into the capital. No scene could have been more ani- 
mating or glorious." 

Conspicuous in this charge was the gallant Colonel Ransom, of the 
9th infantry, who met a soldier's death while leading his troops up 
the summit to the castle. He was shot in the forehead. Major 
Seymour succeeded him, and on arriving before the walls, mounted 
the ladders, leaped upon the parapet, and tore down with his own 
hands the Mexican colours. 

Simultaneously with this attack, General Quitman's troops ap- 
proached the fortress on the opposite side. At early dawn he had 
opened his batteries with much effect, and commenced preparations for 
the assault. Ladders, pick-axes, and crows were placed in the hands 
of a pioneer storming party of one hundred and twenty men, selected 
from all corps of the division, and commanded by Major Twiggs. 
At this time, General Smith arrived with his brigade, and was 
instructed to move in reserve, on the right flank of the assaulting 
column, to protect it from skirmishes or more serious attacks, and if 
possible, cross the aqueduct leading to the city, and cut off the ene- 
my's retreat. 

These dispositions being completed, the whole command, at the 
preconcerted signal, moved forward with confidence and enthusiasm. 
At the base of the hill constituting part of the defences, and directly 



Quitman's operations. 571 




Major (now Colonel) Seymour. 

across the line of advance, were strong batteries, flanked on the right 
Dy equally strong buildings, and by a heavy stone wall, about fifteen 
feet high, which extended around the base of the hill, towards the 
west. The troops were, however, partially covered by some dilapi- 
dated buildings at about two hundred yards' distance. Between 
these and the wall, extended a low meadow, whose long grass con- 
cealed a number of wet ditches, by which it was intersected ; and to 
this point the command, partially screened, advanced by a flank 
movement, having the storming parties in front, who sustained a 
heavy fire from the enemy's fortress, batteries, and breastworks. 
Here, under partial cover of the ruins, the advance was halted, and 
upon the appearance of the New York and South Carolina regiments, 
General Shields was directed to move them obliquely to the left, 
across the low ground to the wall at the base of the hill. Encouraged 
by the presence of the man who had led them to victory at Churu- 
busco, these tried regiments waded through deep ditches, while the 
water around them was foaming with the enemy's shot, and rushing 
forward together effected a lodgment at the wall. Similar orders 
were given to Lieutenant-Colonel Geary, and executed by his regi- 
ment with equal alacrity and success. While cheering on his men, 
General Shields was severely wounded in the arm ; but no induce- 
ment could persuade him to leave his command, or quit the field. 
About the same time, the esteemed Lieutenant-Colonel Baxter was 



572 



STORMING OF CHAPULTEPEC. 




Storming of Chapultepec. 



mortally wounded, Lieutenant-Colonel Geary disabled, and Captain 
Van O'Linda killed. 

During this advance, Brigadier-General Smith was driving back 
skirmishing parties of the enemy on the left ; Lieutenant Benjamin, 
at the first battery, was pouring shot after shot into the fortress and 
woods on the slope, while Lieutenant Hunt, having obtained a 
favourable position in the rear, also threw shells and shrapnell shot 
into the enemy's lines with good effect. At this moment, General 
Quitman ordered the storming parties to the assault. Led by their 
gallant officers, they rushed on in one unbroken tide, while the bat- 
teries from behind continued to pour shells and shot over their heads 
into the enemy's fortress. The Mexican fire was tremendous ; but 
without pausing for a moment, the Americans swept on until they 
reached the outer breastworks. Here, for a short time, the contest 
was terrible. Hand to hand the fierce antagonists met each other's 
strokes, while, as though pausing for the result, died away the loud 
noise of opposing batteries. Swords and bayonets were crossed, 
rifles clubbed, and friend and foe mingled in one confused struggling 
mass. Resistance, however, to the desperate valour of the assailants 



STORMING OF CHAPULTEPEC. 



573 




was vain. The batteries and strong works were swept, and thf 
ascent to Chapultepec laid open on that side. Seven pieces of artil- 
lery, one thousand muskets, and five hundred and fifty prisoners were 
the trophies of victory. Among the prisoners were one hundred 
officers, including a general and ten colonels. 

Captain Casey, the gallant leader of the storming party of regulars, 
having received a severe wound when directly in front of the bat- 
teries, the command devolved on Captain Paul, who, during the 
remainder of the day, distinguished himself for his bravery. The 
storming party from the volunteer division also lost its commander, 
the lamented Major Twiggs — and was led, during the remainder of 
the attack, by Captain James Miller. 

At the same time the volunteer regiments on the left, animated by 
a generous enthusiasm, were ascending the hill on the south side. 
Fighting their way through every obstacle, these brave men fell in 
with their comrades of General Pillow's division ; and side by side, 
amid the storm of battle, the colours of the two commands were 



574 STORMING OF CHAPULTEPEC. 

seen struggling together up the steep ascent. At this moment the 
American batteries, which had continued their fire upon the castle 
over the heads of the assailants, ceased ; and immediately after the 
troops gained the summit. The short but obstinate struggle has been 
described. The veteran Mexican, General Bravo, with a number of 
other officers was captured, by Lieutenant Charles Brower, of the 
New York regiment. In the assault upon the works, Lieutenant 
Steele, with a portion of the storming party, had advanced in front 
of the batteries, towards the left, scaled the outer wall through a 
breach near the top, ascended a hill in front, and was among the 
first upon the battlements. 

After giving the necessary directions for the safe keeping of the 
prisoners, General Quitman ordered his troops to form near the aque- 
duct, and hastily ascended the hill, for the purpose of reconnoitering 
the enemy's position in front of the city. There he met with Major- 
General Pillow, who, as formerly stated, had been carried by his 
troops to the castle, in order to enjoy the triumph of the occasion. 

In speaking of this brilliant affair, General Pillow says: — "We 
took about eight hundred prisoners, among whom were Major-Ge- 
neral Bravo, Brigadier-Generals Monterde, Monega, Doramentas, 
and Saldana; also, three colonels, seven lieutenant-colonels, forty 
captains, twenty-four first, and twenty-seven second lieutenants. 

" That the enemy was in large force, I know, certainly, from per- 
sonal observation. I know it also from the fact that there were killed 
and taken prisoners, one major-general, and six brigadiers. As there 
were six brigadier-generals, there could not have been less than six 
brigades. One thousand men to each brigade, (which is a low esti- 
mate, for we had previously taken so many general officers prisoners, 
that the commands of others must have been considerably increased, ) 
would make six thousand troops. But independent of these evi- 
dences of the enemy's strength, I have General Bravo 's own account 
of the strength of his command, given me only a few minutes after 
he was taken prisoner. He communicated to me, through Passed 
Midshipman Rogers, that there were upwards of six thousand men 
in the works and surrounding grounds. The killed, wounded, and 
prisoners, agreeably to the best estimate I can form, were about 
eighteen hundred, and immense numbers of the enemy were seen to 
escape over the wall on the north and west sides of Chapultepec." 

Many of those who distinguished themselves in this assault have 
been given in connection with the narrative ; a mere list of others 
mentioned with encomiums by the different commanders, would alone 
fill a moderate chapter. Where all behaved as did the victors of Cha- 
pultepec, it is indeed difficult to discriminate in the awarding of 



SKIRMISHES. 



575 



praise. The feat will remain in American history as a proud trophy 
to American valour ; and the fact of being one of the participators in 
it, will insure to many a soldier the esteem and admiration of coun- 
trymen while he lives, and a grateful veneration of his memory after 
death. 

While the assault was going on, on the west, and south-east of Cha- 
pultepec, and on its heights, two companies of infantry, under Colonel 
Ironsdale and Lieutenant Hebert, aided by Captain Magruder's field- 
battery, had some spirited skirmishes with different parties of the 
enemy. In one of these, officers and men behaved in a gallant 
manner, they drove the gunners from a battery in the road, and cap- 
tured a piece. Colonel Ironsdale was twice wounded, but continued 
on duty until the heights were carried. 





A Mexican Gentleman. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



STORMING OF BELIN AND SAN COSME GATES. 





jIJE capture of Chapultepee 
opened to the American army 
the direct road to the west- 
ern and southern portions of 
the city, which points now be- 
came the objects of attack. 
Aware of the importance of improving 
upon the impression made upon the ene- 
my by so heavy a loss, General Scott de- 
termined to waste no time, but to press 
on immediately to the decisive assault. 
Two great routes lead from Chapultepee to the capital. That on 
the right enters the Belen with the Piedad road, from the south ; the 
second obliquing to the left intersects the great western or San Cosme 
road, in a suburb outside the San Cosme gate. Each of these routes 
is an elevated causeway, having a double road on the sides of an 
aqueduct of strong masonry, of great height, and resting on open 
(576) 




3C 



73 



(577) 



DEFENCES AT THE CAPITAL. 



579 




General Scott and Staff, 

arches and massive pillars, affording fine points both for attack and 
defence. In addition to this, the sideways of both aqueducts were 
defended by many strong breastworks, both at the gates and before 
reaching them — the whole presenting a chain of breastworks etery 
link of which would have to be broken before the city could be 
entered. 

Immediately after the capture of Chapultepec, General Scott 
mounted to the top of the castle, where he was enabled to take a 
comprehensive view of the whole field of operations, and to control 
the complicated assault upon the capital. His first care was to de- 
spatch the brigades of Clarke and Cadwalader, together with some 
heavy guns, to Worth's support, and Pierce's brigade to Quitman's. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Howard — in the absence of Colonel Morgan, 
wounded at Chapultepec — with one company of infantry, was ap- 
pointed to garrison Chapultepec, after receiving directions concerning 
the prisoners and captured stores. Having personally attended to 
the preliminary arrangements for executing these orders, the gene- 
ral-in-chief descended, and, with his staff, hurried forward to join 
General Worth, who was already advancing along the San Cosme 
route 



* The strength of the fortifications on this side of the city, where, it will be remem- 
bered, Santa Anna had not expected a serious attack, is a conclusive proof of the sagacity 
of that active leader. He had reason to boast, as he afterwards did, that Mexico had 
never beheld such defences as opposed the American army. If he failed of victory, it 
was owing to circumstances which it was impossible for him to foresee. 



SKETCH OF THE ROUTES OF 

GENERAL WORTH'S AND GENERAL QUITMAN'S COLUMNS FROM 
CHAPULTEPEC TO THE SAN COSME AND BELEN GATES. 

In the attack upon the City of Mexico, 13th and Uth of September, 1847. 




h TO CRAK& 



REFERENCES. 



A. Garita of San Cosme. 

B. Head-quarters of General Worth on the 

night of the 13th. 

C. Position of Clarke's brigade on the night 

of the 13th. 

D. Cuartel. 

E. Cuartel of San Fernando. 

F. Alameda. 

G. Paseo. 

H. Garita Belen. 

I. Battery. 
K. Battery. 

L. Battery. 
M. Battery. 
N. Battery at Campo Santo. 



2151 yards from N.. to P. 
1379 yards from P. to Chapultepec. 
R. Battery. 
S. Battery. 

T. Head of General Worth's column at six 
o'clock on the morning of 14th. 
. .... General Worth's division. 
UUU. Road and aqueduct to Belen gate. Ge- 
neral Quitman's route. 
VV. Passage of Smith's light battalion. 
W. Section of Duncan's battery. 

Road and aqueduct to the garita. Ge- 
neral Worth's route. 
Chapultepec. 
Drum's battery. 



XXX. 



(580) 



GALLANTRY OF WORTH. 



581 





HE American commander 
had intended to make but 
one principal attack upon 
the city, which was to be 
conducted by Worth, against 
the San Cosme gate ; while 
General Quitman, advancing along the 
Tacubaya road, was to threaten the 
Belen defences, and amuse the garri- 
son, until Worth had effected a lodg- 
ment in the city. 
It will be remembered that prior to the assault upon Chapultepec, 
Worth had been ordered to hold his division in readiness to support the 
operations of General Pillow. When the latter officer was wounded, 
he sent an aid to Worth, requesting him to bring up his "whole di- 
vision, and make great haste or he feared he would be too late." 
This call seems to have been premature — not to say unnecessary — 
but Worth promptly despatched Clarke's brigade, who, mingling with 
the assailants, entered side by side into the fortress. Although thus 
weakened, the general put his remaining brigade (Colonel Garland's) 
in motion, along the north-eastern base of the hill, in direction of the 
San Cosme road. After advancing about four hundred yards, the 
troops reached the battery which had been assailed by Magruder's 
field-guns — particularly by the section under the gallant Lieutenant 
Jackson, who, although he had lost most of his horses, and many 
men, was still remaining firmly at his post. About the same time, 
a portion of Garland's brigade encountered and defeated the enemy's 
right, who had been for a long while hovering near the hill. Quit- 
man's command was now plainly discernible, fighting their way along 
the Tacubaya aqueduct. After the repulse of the Mexican right, 
Worth's troops discovered an arched passage through the aqueduct, 
and a cross route practicable for artillery, extending a considerable 
distance over the meadows towards the enemy's left, which was now 
galling Quitman's advance. With a generosity which does him 
honour, Worth determined to assist his brother officer in so perilous 
an extremity, and despatched Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan, with a 
6ection of his battery, covered by Lieutenant-Colonel Smith's bat- 
talion, to attack the enemy's left, which was supported by a battery. 
Duncan advanced to within four hundred yards, and opened a fire 
which drove back both infantry and artillery. " Having thus aided," 
6ays Worth, " the advance, and cleared the front (being favourably 
situated) of my gallant friend, Quitman, so far as it was in my power, 
this portion of my command was withdrawn." 
3c2 



582 



STORMING OF SAN COSME GATE. 




OLONEL CLARKE'S brigade at this 
moment rejoined the division, and the 
advance upon the main road was con- 
tinued. The troops soon came up 
with a second battery, which was 
stormed and taken, a victory followed 
in a little while by the capture of a 
third. Both of these were strong 
works, enfilading the road. Their 
capture brought the division to the 
Campo Santo, or English burying 
ground, near which the road and 
aqueduct bend towards the city. Here Worth was joined by the 
general-in-chief. "At this junction of roads," says General Scott, 
" we first passed one of those formidable systems of city defences, 
spoken of above, and it had not a gun ! — a strong proof, 1st. That 
the enemy had expected us to fail in the attack upon Chapultepec, 
even if we meant any thing but a feint ; 2d. That in either case, we 
designed in his belief to return and double our forces against the 
southern gates, a delusion kept up by the active demonstrations of 
Twiggs and the forces posted on that side ; and, 3d. That advancing 
rapidly from the reduction of Chapultepec, the enemy had not time 
to shift guns — our previous captures had left him comparatively but 
few — from the southern gates, i 

" Within those disgarnished works, I found our troops engaged in 
a street fight, against the enemy posted in gardens, at windows, and 
on house-tops — all flat, with parapets. Worth ordered forward the 
mountain howitzers, of Cadwalader's brigade, preceded by skir- 
mishers and pioneers, with pickaxes and crowbars, to force win- 
dows and doors, or to burrow through walls." 

The troops were now in front of another battery, beyond which, 
distant some two hundred and fifty yards, and sustaining it, was the 
last defence — the San Cosme gate. The approach to these works 
being in a right line, the entire space was swept by grape, shells, and 
canister, from a heavy gun and howitzer. To this were added the 
severe fires of musketry from churches, houses, and walls. The 
spectacle throughout the entire field was at this time awfully sublime. 
To the south, Twiggs was maneuvering and keeping in check the 
enemy's strongest batteries, thus preventing them from reinforcing 
the actual points of attack ; from the Tacubaya road was heard the 
thunder of Quitman's cannon, as he hurried on his shouting troops, 
through the most appalling fires, to the strongest fortresses of Mexico , 
while in noble emulation, Worth and his iron-nerved followers, 



CAPTURE OF SAN COSME GATE. 583 

poured along the western road, storming battery after battery and 
now facing the last stronghold. On the other hand, the Mexicans, 
gathering all their energies as the danger approached, sent forth vol- 
leys of flaming fire whose iron showers smote fearfully among the 
assailants, and made the lofty buildings of the capital totter with 
their reiterated reports. Every possible means of defence was thrown 
into the fortresses ; and Santa Anna, abandoning to another general 
the protection of his strongest work, hurried to San Cosme to resist 
the threatened entrance of Worth. 

On arriving in front of the last mentioned battery, General Worth 
found it necessary to vary his mode of operations. Garland's brigade 
was thrown within the aqueduct, to the right, with instructions to 
dislodge the enemy from the buildings in their front, and if possible 
to turn the left of the main defence. At the same time, Clarke's 
brigade entered the buildings on the left, and with bars and picks 
burrowed through the houses towards the enemy's right. This work, 
although slow and tedious, was greatly favoured by the fire of two 
mountain howitzers, posted one on the top of a building command- 
ing the left, the other on the church of San Cosme to the right. At 
five o'clock, each column had reached its position near the main 
work, when it became necessary to advance a piece of artillery at all 
hazards, to the enemy's last battery, which was now evacuated. 
Lieutenant Hunt was intrusted with the execution of this important 
and dangerous duty, which he performed in the highest possible 
style of gallantry, moving in the face of the enemy's fire, at full 
speed, and planting his guns, muzzle to muzzle, with those of the 
opposing batteries. Out of nine men, one was killed and four 
wounded, although the distance moved over was only one hundred 
and fifty yards. 

^VERY thing was now in readiness for the 
final attack of the two brigades upon the 
right and left of the San Cosme fortress. 
" It was made," says General Worth, " by 
our men springing as if by magic to the 
tops of the houses into which they had patiently 
and quietly made their way with the bar and pick, 
s^ " and to the utter surprise and consternation of the 
enemy, opening upon him within easy range, a destructive fire of 
musketry. A single discharge, in which many of his gunners were 
killed by their pieces, was sufficient to drive him in confusion from 
the breastworks, when a prolonged shout from our brave fellows 
announced that we were in possession of the garita of San Cosme, 
and already in the city of Mexico." 




584 



DEPUTATION TO GENERAL SCOTT. 




HE remainder of the division now 
entered the city gate. Captain 
Huger having reported to General 
Worth, was desired to advance a 
twenty-four-pounder and a ten inch 
mortar to a convenient position for 
opening upon the Grand Plaza and 
National Palace, supposed to be 
distant about sixteen hundred 
yards. At nine o'clock this bat- 
tery opened with such admirable 
effect, that in four hours, Worth 
was waited upon by a flag from 
the municipality, the bearer of 
which stated, that immediately after 
the heavy guns had opened, the army and government commenced 
evacuating the city. The deputation was passed to the head-quar- 
ters of General Scott, under charge of Assistant Adjutant-General 
Mackall ; and the active operations near San Cosme were of course 
suspended. Worth's loss was two officers killed, ten wounded, with 
one hundred and twenty-nine, rank and file, killed, wounded, and 
missing. 

During these brilliant operations of General Worth, others no 
less glorious were being conducted by Quitman and his gallant 
troops, in the Tacubaya road. Immediately after the fall of Chapul- 
tepec, he had observed large bodies of the enemy at the batteries in 
this route, and providing himself with ammunition, he prepared to 
march upon them. The rifle regiment, led by General Smith, formed 
under the arches of the aqueduct, and as the remainder of his brigade 
came up, that officer employed them in levelling the parapets and 
filling the ditches, which interrupted the road where the enemy's 
batteries had been. A path was thus cleared for the passage of the 
neavy artillery ordered up by the general-in-chief, after his arrival at 
Chapultepec. At the same time, General Shields, with the assist- 
ance of General Quitman's staff officers and his own, was causing 
the deficient ammunition to be supplied, and the troops to be formed 
for the advance, while Captain Drum, supported by the rifle regiment, 
had taken charge of one of the enemy's pieces, and was advancing 
towards the first battery occupied by the enemy towards the city. 

It will be remembered that the Tacubaya, or Chapultepec, is a 
broad avenue, flanked on either side by deep ditches and marshy 
grounds. Along its middle runs the aqueduct, supported by arches 
of heavy masonry, extending onward through the gate (garita) of 



STORMING OF BELEN GATE. 



5S5 



Belen into the city. Along these arches the rifles, supported by the 
South Carolina regiment, and followed by the remainder of Smith's 
brigade, were now advancing. In their front, and directly across 
the road, was a strong battery, having four embrasures, with a redan 
work on the right. Here the enemy made an obstinate resistance ; 
but by the aid of an eight inch howitzer, conducted by Captain 
Drum, and the daring bravery of the rifle regiment, it was carried by 
storm. Here the column was reorganized, for an attack upon the 
batteries at the main defence. In advance were the riflemen, inter- 
mingled with the bayonets of the South Carolina regiment — three 
rifles and three bayonets being under each arch. These were sup- 
ported by the remainder of Shields's brigade, the 2d Pennsylvania 
regiment, the remnant of Smith's command, and part of the 6th in- 
fantry, under Major Bonneville. In this order the column moved 
from arch to arch, under a tremendous fire of artillery and small 
arms from the Belen and Paseo batteries, and a large body of the 
enemy on the Piedad road. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Benjamin had 
brought up a sixteen-pounder, which added to Captain Drum's 
piece, poured into the fortifications a constant and destructive fire. 
The enfilading fire from the Piedad road becoming very annoying, a 
few rounds of canister were thrown among them with good effect. 
The whole column was now under a galling fire, but steadily and 
firmly it continued to move forward until the advance was near 
enough for the charge. This was executed in a brilliant manner, 
and at twentyminutes past one, the Belen gate was carried, and the 
city entered at that point. 

if 



Jl 



N speaking of this affair, and 
of the subsequent operations 
under his direction, General 
Quitman says : — " The ob- 
stinacy of the defence at the 
garita maybe accounted for 
by our being opposed at that point by 
General Santa Anna in person, who is 
said to have retreated by the Paseo to 
the San Cosme road, there to try his 
fortune against General Worth. 
" On our approach to the garita, a body of the enemy, who were 
seen on a cross road threatening our left, were dispersed by a brisk 
fire of artillery from the direction of the San Cosme road. I take 
pleasure in acknowledging that this seasonable aid came from Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Duncan's battery, which had been kindly advanced 
from the San Cosme road, in that direction, by General Worth's orders. 

74 





586 STORMING OF BELEN GATE. 

PON the taking of the garita, the rifle- 
men and South Carolina regiment 
rushed forward and occupied the arches 
of the aqueduct, within a hundred yards 
of the citadel. The ammunition of our 
heavy guns having been expended, a 
captured eight-pounder was turned upon the 
enemy and served with good effect until the 
ammunition taken with it was also expended. 
The piece, supported "by our advance, had been 
run forward in front of the garita. Twice had Major Gladden, of 
the South Carolina regiment, furnished additional men to work the 
gun, when the noble and brave Captain Drum, who, with indomitable 
energy and iron nerve, had directed the artillery throughout this try- 
ing day, fell mortally wounded by the side of his gun. A few mo- 
ments afterwards, Lieutenant Benjamin, who had displayed the same 
cool, decided courage, met a similar fate. 

" The enemy, now perceiving that our heavy ammunition had been 
expended, redoubled their exertions to drive us out of the lodgment 
we had effected. A terrific fire of artillery and small arms was 
opened from the citadel, three hundred yards distant, from the bat- 
teries on the Paseo, and the buildings on our right in front. Amid 
this iron shower, which swept the road on both sides of the aqueduct, 
it was impossible to bring forward ammunition for our large guns. 
While awaiting the darkness to bring up our great guns and place 
them in battery, the enemy, under cover of their guns, attempted 
several sallies from the citadel and buildings on the right, but were 
readily repulsed by the skirmishing parties of rifles and infantry. To 
prevent our flank from being enfiladed by musketry from the Paseo, 
Captains Naylor and Loeser, 2d Pennsylvania regiment, were ordered 
with their companies to a low sand-bag defence about a hundred 
yards in that direction. They gallantly took this position, and held 
it, in the face of a severe fire, until the object was attained. 

il At night the fire of the enemy ceased. Lieutenant Tower, of the 
engineers, who before and at the attack upon the batteries at Cha- 
pultepec had given important aid, had been seriously wounded. It 
was, therefore, fortunate that, in the commencement of the route to 
the city, Lieutenant Beauregard, of engineers, joined me. I was 
enabled, during the day, to avail myself of his valuable services ; 
and although disabled, for a time, by a wound received during the 
day, he superintended, during the whole night, the erection of two 
batteries within the garita for our heavy guns, and a breastwork on 
our right for infantry, which, with his advice, I had determined to 



CAPTURE OF BELEN GATE. 587 

construct. By the indefatigable energy of my acting assistant adju- 
tant-general, Lieutenant Lovell, my volunteer aid, Captain G. T. M. 
Davis, and Lieutenant H. Brown, 3d artillery, the sand-bags and 
ammunition were procured ; Lieutenant Beauregard, assisted by 
Lieutenant Coupe, directing the construction of one battery in per- 
son, and Lieutenant W. H. Wood, 3d infantry, the other. Before 
the dawn of day, by the persevering exertions of Captains Fairchild 
and Taylor, of the New York regiments, who directed the working 
parties, the parapets were completed, and a twenty-four pounder, an 
eighteen-pounder, and an eight-inch howitzer placed in battery by 
Captain Steptoe, 3d artillery, who, to my great satisfaction, had re- 
joined my command in the evening. The heavy labour required to 
construct these formidable batteries, under the very guns of the cita- 
del, was performed with the utmost cheerfulness by the gallant men 
whose strong arms and stout hearts had already been tested in two 
days of peril and toil. 

URING the night, while at the 
trenches, Brigadier-General Pierce — 
one of whose regiments (the 9th in- 
fantry) had joined my column during 
the day — reported to me in person. 
He was instructed to place that regi- 
ment in reserve at the battery in 
rear, for the protection of Steptoe's 
light battery, and the ammunition at 
that point. The general has my thanks 
for his prompt attention to these orders. 
" At dawn of day on the 14th, when Captain Steptoe was preparing 
his heavy missiles, a white flag came from the citadel, the bearers of 
which invited me to take possession of this fortress, and gave me the 
intelligence that the city had been abandoned by Santa Anna and 
his army. My whole command was immediately ordered under 
arms. By their own request, Lieutenants Lovell and Beauregard 
were authorized to go to the citadel, in advance, to ascertain the truth 
of the information. At a signal from the ramparts, the column, Ge- 
neral Smith's brigade in front, and the South Carolina regiment left 
in garrison at the garita, marched into the citadel. Having taken 
possession of this work, in which we found fifteen pieces of cannon 
mounted, and as many not up, with the extensive military armaments 
which it contained, the 2d Pennsylvania regiment was left to garri- 
son it. Understanding that great depredations were going on in the 
palace and public buildings, I moved the column in that direction in 
the same order, followed by Captain Steptoe's light battery, through 




688 



RAISING OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 



the principal streets into the great plaza, where it was formed in front 
of the National Palace. Captain Roberts, of the rifle regiment, who 
had led the advance company of the storming party at Chapultepec, 
and had greatly distinguished himself during the preceding day, was 
detailed by me to plant the star-spangled banner of our country upon 
the National Palace. The flag, the first strange banner which had 
ever waved over that palace since the conquest of Cortes, was dis- 
played and saluted with enthusiasm by the whole command. The 
palace, already crowded with Mexican thieves and robbers, was 
placed in charge of Lieutenant-Colonel Watson, with his battalion 
of marines. By his active exertions, it was soon cleared and guarded 
from further spoliation. 

" Two detachments from my command, not heretofore mentioned 
in this report, should be noticed. Captain Gallagher and Lieutenant 
Reid, who, with their companies of New York volunteers, had been 
detailed on the morning of the 12th, by General Shields to the sup- 
port of our battery No. 2, well performed this service. The former, 
by the orders of Captain Huger, was detained at that battery during 
the storming of Chapultepec. The latter, a brave and energetic young 
officer, being relieved from the battery on the advance to the castle, 
hastened to the assault, and was among the first to ascend the crest 
of the hill where he was severely wounded. 

N all the operations of the 
several corps under my com- 
mand, to which this report 
refers, it gives me great plea* 
sure to testify to the devoted 
courage with which they 
faced every danger, and the 
cheerfulness and alacrity with 
which they met every toil and 
exposure. A simple narra- 
tive of those military events, 
crowned as they were with 
complete success, is a higher 
compliment than any expressions of my opinion can bestow upon the 
general good conduct of the whole command. 

" I have already alluded to the gallant conduct of the storming 
parties. They deserve the highest commendation. The losses sus- 
tained by Captain Drum's heroic little band of artillerists from the 
4th artillery, evince their exposure during the day. I do them, 
officers and men, but justice, when I add that no encomium upon 
their conduct and skill would be misplaced. 




result of quitman's operations. 



589 





iHIS report has already- 
shown the prominent part 
taken by the regiment of 
riflemen under the command 
of the brave and intrepid 
Major Loring, who fell se- 
verely wounded by my side, while re- 
ceiving orders for the final charge upon 
the garita. After the taking of the batte- 
ries of Chapultepec, in which portions 
of this corps took an active part, this 
efficient and splendid regiment were employed as sharp-shooters in 
the advance, through the arches of the aqueduct, where their ser- 
vices were invaluable. My only concern was to restrain their daring 
impetuosity. 

" The gallant and unassuming Palmetto regiment, which had charged 
up the ascent of Chapultepec without firing a gun, w r as also employed 
to support and aid the rifles. In this service their loss was severe. 
Among others, the brave and efficient commander, Major Gladden, 
was severely wounded, and Lieutenants J. B. Moraigne and William 
Canty, killed. But they well sustained the reputation they had ac- 
quired at Vera Cruz, Contreras, and Churubusco. 

" Brigadier-General Shields had solicited from me the command of 
the storming parties in the morning of the 13th. Not feeling justified 
in permitting so great an exposure of an officer of his rank with an 
inadequate command, and requiring his invaluable services with his 
brigade, the application was declined. Until carried from the field 
on the night of the 13th, in consequence of the severe wound received 
in the morning, he was conspicuous for his gallantry, energy, and 
skill. In Brevet Brigadier-General Smith, who was ever cool, unem- 
barrassed, and ready, under the trying exposures of the day, I found 
an able and most efficient supporter. Lieutenant-Colonel Geary, 
who, in the illness of Colonel Roberts, commanded the 2d Pennsyl- 
vania regiment, constituting the 2d brigade of my division, was 
wounded before the walls of Chapultepec, at the head of his corps, 
but soon resumed command and rendered good service." 

General Quitman's loss on this day was five hundred and forty- 
men, of whom seventy-seven, including eight officers, were killed, 
four hundred and fifty-four wounded, and nine missing. 

It will be borne in mind, that the storming of Belen gate had not 
been part of General Scott's plan of attack. The main assault was 
conducted by General Worth, and during the afternoon, the com- 
mander had repeatedly informed Quitman of his original design. 
3D 



590 



REMARKS. 



But that gallant officer continued to press forward with increased 
success, and a laudable spirit which the general-in-chief would not 
dampen, by an order for his recall. The consequence was that the 
whole line of defence on the western side was carried on the same 
afternoon, rendering the defeat of the enemy utterly overwhelming. 
It should also be borne in mind, that during a great part of the 
assault, Quitman was opposed by Santa Anna in person, who left no 
means untried in order to avail himself of his powerful defences, and 
prevent the entrance of the Americans. Even the batteries of El 
Paseo and Piedad were made to sweep the causeway, along which 
the troops were passing ; so that in view of all the circumstances 
attending this trying assault, the sentiment will not appear extrava- 
gant, which compared Quitman's advance towards the Belen gate, 
to Napoleon's passage of the Lodi. The immediate consequence 
was the capture of the capital, so long the goal of the army's 
ambition. 





CHAPTER XXXII. 



ENTRANCE INTO THE CAPITAL. 



T four o'clock, A. M. of September 13, the 
deputation from the Mexican Ayuntamiento, 
reached the head-quarters of General Scott. 
They reported, as before, that the army and 
government had left the city, and demanded 
in the name of the city council, terms of 
capitulation in favour of the church, the 
citizens, and municipal authorities. ' The 
general replied that he would sign no such 
instrument, since, virtually, the city had 
been in his possession for several hours. While regretting the escape 
of the Mexican army, he expressed his determination to levy a con- 
tribution for special purposes, and to bring his army under no terms 

(591) 




592 



quitman's appointed governor. 




Grand Plaza in the City of Mexico. 



not self-imposed — " such only as its own honour, the dignity of the 
United States, and the spirit of the age should in my opinion impe- 
riously demand and impose." The substance of these terms was, 
that the city should be laid under strict martial law ; that a contribu- 
tion of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars should be laid upon 
the capital, payable in four, weekly, instalments, and that no rent 
should be paid by the United States for any building occupied by 
troops or officers, without a special direction from general head- 
quarters. On the other hand, no private house was to be occupied 
by the American troops without the free consent of the owner, or an 
order from General Scott, while the collection of duties at the several 
gates of the city was continued as before, in the hands of the Mexi- 
can authorities. A Mexican police was organized to act in concert 
with the Americans ; and the city, with its public buildings and 
places of religious worship, was placed under the especial safeguard 
of the army. General Quitman was appointed civil and military 
governor, and Captain Naylor superintendent of the National Palace. 
At the termination of the interview, the general-in-chief commu- 
nicated orders to Generals Worth and Quitman, to advance slowly 
and cautiously towards the heart of the city, so as to occupy its 
strongest and most commanding positions. It was under obe- 
dience to these orders that Quitman, as before related, proceeded to 



FIRING FROM HOUSE TOPS. 



593 




City of Mexico. Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl in the distance. 



the grand plaza, planted guards, and hoisted, on the National Palace, 
the colours of the United States. "In this grateful service," observes 
the commander, " Quitman might have been anticipated by Worth, 
but for my express orders halting the latter at the head of the alameda, 
(a green park,) within three squares of that goal of general ambition. 
The capital, however, was not taken by any one or two corps, but 
by the talent, the science, the gallantry, the prowess of this entire 
army. In the glorious conquest all had contributed — early and 
powerfully — the killed, the wounded, and the Jit for duty — at Vera 
Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, San Antonio, Churubusco, (three bat- 
tles,) the Molinos del Rey, and Chapultepec — as much as those who 
fought at the gates of Belen and San Cosme." 

The advance divisions were followed by the remainder of the army, 
under the personal direction of Major- General Scott. The officers 
were dressed in full uniform, the military bands sent forth strains of 
national music, and altogether, the entrance was conducted in a 
manner highly gratifying to the soldiers. 

Immediately after entering, the troops were fired upon from the 
roofs of houses, windows, and corners of the streets, by about two 
thousand convicts liberated by the flying government, and assisted by 
as many Mexican soldiers, who had disbanded themselves and thrown 
off their uniforms. Worth and Quitman's divisions had previously 
suffered from the same source. In spite of the exertions of the muni- 
cipal authorities, this unlawful war was not stopped until the Ameri- 
3d2 75 



594 SUMMARY OF OPERATIONS. 

cans had lost many men, including Colonel Garland wounded, and 
Lieutenant Sidney Smith, killed. The object of this assassin-like 
fire was to gratify national hatred, and amid the general confusion, 
to plunder the deserted houses and wealthy inhabitants. The most 
active operations were conducted against them, which were at length 
successful, and quiet was restored. 

Immediately on assuming quarters, General Scott issued a procla- 
mation, enforcing rules of order to be observed by the American army, 
and calling on the troops to return public thanks to Almighty God, 
for the late important conquests. Under his admirable arrangements, 
together with those of Governor Quitman, the citizens returned to 
their homes, business slowly revived, and the city resumed its wonted 
appearance of beauty and cheerfulness. 

The operations in the valley of Mexico are so stupendous, that we 
give General Scott's summary of them, together with the killed, 
wounded, and prisoners, on each side, in order that they may at once 
be embraced in a single view. 

" Leaving, as we all feared," says the general-in-chief, " inade- 
quate garrisons at Vera Cruz, Perote, and Puebla — with much larger 
hospitals ; and being obliged, most reluctantly, from the same cause 
(general paucity of numbers) to abandon Jalapa, we marched [Au- 
gust 7-10] from Puebla with only ten thousand seven hundred and 
thirty-eight rank and file. This number includes the garrison of 
Jalapa, and the two thousand four hundred and twenty-nine men 
brought up by Brigadier-General Pierce, August 6th. 

" At Contreras, Churubusco, &c, [August 20,] we had but eight 
thousand four hundred and ninety-seven men engaged — after deduct- 
ing the garrison of San Augustin, (our general depot,) the interme- 
diate sick and the dead ; at the Molinos del Rey, [September 8,] but 
three brigades, with some cavalry and artillery — making in all three 
thousand two hundred and fifty-one men — were in the battle ; in the 
two days — September 12 and 13 — our whole operating force, after 
deducting again, the recent killed, wounded, and sick, together with 
the garrison of Mixcoac (the then general depot) and that of Tacu- 
baya, was but seven thousand one hundred and eighty ; and, finally, 
after deducting the new garrison at Chapultepec, with the killed and 
wounded of the two days, we took possession [September 14] of this 
great capital with less than six thousand men ! And I reassert, upon 
accummulated and unquestionable evidence, that, in not one of those 
conflicts, was this army opposed by fewer than three and a half times 
its numbers — in several of them, by a yet greater excess. 

" I recapitulate our losses since we arrived in the basin of Mexico : 

"August 19, 20. Killed, one hundred and thirty-seven, includ- 



LOSSES IN KILLED AND WOUNDED. 595 

ing fourteen officers. Wounded, eight hundred and seventy-seven, 
including sixty-two officers. Missing, (probably killed) thirty-eight 
rank and file. Total, one thousand and fifty-two. 

" September 8. — Killed, one hundred and sixteen, including nine 
officers. Wounded, six hundred and sixty-five, including forty-nine 
officers. Missing, eighteen rank and file. Total, seven hundred 
and eighty-nine. 

"September 12, 13, 14. — Killed, one hundred and thirty, includ- 
ing ten officers. Wounded, seven hundred and three, including 
sixty-eight officers. Missing, twenty-nine rank and file. Total, 
eight hundred and sixty-two. 

" Grand total of losses, two thousand seven hundred and three, 
including three hundred and eighty-three officers. 

" On the other hand, this small force has beaten, on the same occa- 
sions, in view of their capital, the whole Mexican army, of (at the 
beginning) thirty odd thousand men — posted, always, in chosen po- 
sitions, behind intrenchments, or more formidable defences of nature 
and art ; killed or wounded, of that number, more than seven thou- 
sand officers and men ; taken three thousand seven hundred and thirty 
prisoners, one-seventh officers, including thirteen generals, of whom 
three had been presidents of this republic ; captured more than 
twenty colours and standards, seventy-five pieces of ordnance, be- 
sides fifty-seven wall-pieces, twenty thousand small arms, an immense 
quantity of shot, shells, powder, &c, &c. 

F that enemy, once so formidable in num- 
bers, appointments, artillery, &c, twenty 
odd thousand men have disbanded them- 
selves in despair, leaving, as is known, 
not more than three fragments — the largest 
about two thousand five hundred — now 
wandering in different directions, with- 
out magazines or a military chest, and 
living at free quarters upon their own 
people. 

" General Santa Anna, himself a fugitive, is believed to be on the 
point of resigning the chief magistracy, and escaping to neutral Guati- 
mala. A new president, no doubt, will soon be declared, and the 
federal congress is expected to reassemble at Queretaro, one hundred 
and twenty-five miles north of this, on the Zacatecas road, some 
time in October. I have seen and given safe conduct through this 
city to several of its members. The government will find itself with- 
out resources; no army, no arsenals, no magazines, and but little 
revenue, internal or external. Still such is the obstinacy, or rather 




596 COMMENDATION OF OFFICERS. 

infatuation, of this people, that it is very doubtful whether the new 
authorities will dare sue for peace on the terms which, in the recent 
negotiations, were made known by our minister. 

***** #**# 

" In conclusion, I beg to enumerate, once more, with due com- 
mendation and thanks, the distinguished staff officers, general and 
personal, who, in our last operations in front of the enemy, accom- 
panied me, and communicated orders to every point and through 
every danger. Lieutenant-Colonel Hitchcock, acting inspector-gene- 
ral; Major Turnbull and Lieutenant Hardcastle, topographical engi- 
neers; Major Kirby, chief paymaster; Captain Irwin, chief quarter- 
master ; Captain Grayson, chief commissary ; Captain H. L. Scott, 
chief in the adjutant-general's department ; Lieutenant Williams, aid- 
de-camp ; Lieutenant Lay, military secretary, and Major J. P. Gaines, 
Kentucky cavalry, volunteer aid-de-camp. Captain Lee, engineer, 
so constantly distinguished, also bore important orders from me (Sep- 
tember 13) until he fainted from a wound and the loss of two nights' 
sleep at the batteries. Lieutenants Beauregard, Stevens, and Tower, 
all wounded, were employed with the divisions, and Lieutenants G. 
W. Smith and G. B. McClellan with the company of sappers and 
miners. Those five lieutenants of engineers, like their captain, won 
the admiration of all about them. The ordnance officers, Captain 
Huger, Lieutenants Hagner, Stone, and Reno, were highly effective, 
and distinguished at the several batteries ; and I must add that Cap- 
tain McKinstrey, assistant quartermaster, at the close of the opera- 
tions, executed several important commissions for me as a special 
volunteer. 

"Surgeon-General Lawson, and the medical staff generally, were 
skilful and untiring in and out of fire, in administering to the nume- 
rous wounded." 

Comment upon the achievements described in this extract is un- 
necessary. The immediate result, as has been already stated, was 
the undisputed possession of the most splendid capital of the Ame- 
rican continent ; the remote result, the restoration of peace, and 
cession of an immense tract of territory to the United States. 





Western part of Puebla de los Angeles. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



SIEGE OF PUEBLA. 



N the march of the American army from Pue- 
bla towards the capital, the command of that 
city was intrusted to Colonel Childs. His 
total force was about four hundred men, con- 
sisting of forty-six cavalry, under Captain 
Ford, two companies of artillery, under Cap- 
tains Kendrick and Miller, and six com- 
panies of the 1st Pennsylvania volunteers, 
under Lieutenant-Colonel Black. With this 
small command, the grand depot in the city 
named San Jose, and the posts of Loreto and Guadalupe, were to 
be garrisoned and held against the combined efforts of the military 
and populace in Puebla. San Jose was the key of the colonel's po- 
sition, on the safety of which that of every other depended. 

(597) 




598 



SIEGE OF PUEBLA. 



In addition to the smallness of the garrison, and the extent of space 
to be covered, the Americans were encumbered with eighteen hun- 
dred sick. The hospitals for these were situated in isolated positions, 
while the surgeons were provided with but six attendants. 

After the departure of the main army, no acts of hostility other 
than the occasional murdering of a straggling soldier, occurred until 
September 13, the same day in which the Mexican capital was taken. 
During the night of that date, the enemy opened a fire upon the 
Americans from the streets of Puebla. Colonel Childs had for some 
time been expecting this, and had removed all the hospitals within 
the protection of San Jose, and placed every man of his command on 
duty. The firing of the 13th continued languidly until after daylight, 
when everything became quiet. On the night of the 14th, the guns 
were reopened with a violence which convinced the colonel that the 
siege had commenced in earnest. A storm of bombs and shot was 
thrown into the fortifications until morning, while numerous bodies 
of troops were heard taking up positions around the American sta- 
tions. On the 15th, large parties of cavalry were observed in the 
fields, gathering together the sheep and cattle, and endeavouring to 
turn the stream of water which supplies San Jose. In the evening, 
Colonel Childs organized two parties to secure, if possible, some of 
the live stock. They succeeded in capturing thirty oxen and four 
hundred sheep — a most seasonable supply at the time. 

URING the day, the fire of the 
enemy was unabated, and large 
reinforcements were observed to 
join them from the interior. 
Nearly every station in the city 
from which a battery could be 
discharged, was now occupied 
by the Mexicans, and under a 
most tremendous fire, the 
Americans laboured night and 
day in completing their de- 
fences, and preparing for an 
assault. 

On the 22d, General Santa 
Anna arrived with a large force from Mexico. His appearance was 
hailed by discharges of cannon, a general ringing of bells, and other 
demonstrations of joy. A battery at Loreto was opened by command 
of Colonel Childs, which, throwing shells and round shot into the 
heart of the city, did considerable execution, besides causing a tem- 
porary suspension of the rejoicing. Santa Anna, with his customary 




SIEGE OF PUEBLA. 



599 




Colonel Childs. 



activity, immediately began preparations for an assault. New bat- 
teries were planted, storming parties designated, and a more perfect 
organization of the besiegers enforced. 

On the 25th, Childs received a summons to surrender, with the 
assurance that he would be treated in a manner worthy of his valour 
and military rank. This was declined. After despatching his an- 
swer, the colonel rode to the different posts of his garrison, announc- 
ing the demand, together with the reply. This was received by the 
soldiers in a manner which convinced him of their determination to 
endure every hardship and danger rather than disgrace themselves 
by yielding to the Mexican forces. 

After receiving this answer from the American commander, Santa 
Anna opened his batteries upon San Jose, which now became the 
principal point of attack. Its garrison consisted of Ford's cavalry, 
Miller's artillery, four companies of volunteers, and a hospital, with 
its guard, under Captain Rowe. The whole was commanded by 
Lieutenant-Colonel Black. " The duty required of this command," 



600 SORTIE FROM THE GARRISON. 

says Colonel Childs, " in consequence of the various points to be de- 
fended, demanded an untiring effort on the part of every officer and 
soldier. A shower of bullets was constantly poured from the streets, 
the balconies, the house-tops, and churches, upon their devoted 
heads. Never did troops endure more fatigue, by watching night 
after night — nor exhibit more patience, spirit, and gallantry. Not a 
post of danger could present itself, but the gallant fellows were ready 
to fill it. Not a sentinel could be shot, but another was anxious and 
ready to take his place. Officers and soldiers vied with each other 
to be honoured martyrs in their country's cause. This is the gene- 
ral character of the troops I had the honour to command, and-I was 
confident the crown of victory would perch upon their standard when 
the last great effort should be made." 

N order, as far as possible, to secure 
San Jose from the enemy's shot, Childs 
threw up a traverse on the plaza, and 
withdrew a twelve-pounder from Loreto, 
to answer the besieging batteries. On 
the evening of the 30th, a new battery 
of Santa Anna ceased, and on the fol- 
lowing morning was withdrawn, to- 
gether with about three thousand of 
the supporting force. The object of 
this movement was to meet some rein- 
forcements daily expected at Pinal. Taking advantage of it, Colo- 
nel Childs determined on a sortie against certain barricades and 
buildings, whose fire had become very annoying. 

The sortie was made on the 2d of October, by two parties com- 
manded by Captain Wm. F. Small, of the 1st Pennsylvania volun- 
teers, and Lieutenant Morgan, of the 14th regiment. The captain, after 
passing through the walls of an entire square, with fifty men, gained a 
position opposite the barricade, from which he drove the enemy with 
great loss, and burned one hundred and fifty cotton bales, of which 
the work was composed. Seventeen Mexicans were killed upon the 
spot. Lieutenant Laidley, of the ordnance corps, was then sent to 
blow up a prominent building, which he successfully accomplished. 
The whole party were then withdrawn. In this affair they had be- 
haved with great gallantry, and for twenty-four hours were unceasing 
in their labours to accomplish their object. Their loss was but a few 
wounded. 

At the same time, Lieutenants Morgan and Merryfield, with de- 
tachments from the marines and rifles, attempted to gain possession 
of some buildings from which the depot was receiving a heavy fire. 




ARRIVAL OF GENERAL LANE. 



601 



The latter officer succeeded in entering; but Lieutenant Morgan was 
not so fortunate. After several desperate efforts to force a passage 
through the strong detachment opposed to him, he was directed by 
Colonel Childs to fall back. These gallant feats were a severe check 
upon the enemy, and produced a sensible diminution of their fire. 
Other minor acts of bravery were performed by officers and men at 
San Jose ; while from Guadalupe one or two successful sorties were 
made upon the enemy while engaged in their daily attacks upon 
San Jose. 

Immediately after this disaster, Santa Anna left the besieging forces, 
and hurried to oppose the march of General Lane from Vera Gruz. 
The bombardment and cannonade continued, however, with dimi- 
nished energy, until October 12, when General Lane arrived with 
reinforcements for the wearied garrison. 

HROUGHOUT the whole of this trying 
siege. Colonel Childs behaved in a 
manner which proved him worthy of 
the confidence of the general-in-chief. 
He pays merited compliments to the 
officers and men. Besides those whose 
actions have been particularized, Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Black afforded most 
able support, and for more than thirty 
days was untiring in his efforts for the 
preservation of his post. Lieutenant 
Laidley stationed himself at the barri- 
cade, night after night, firing upon the 
enemy with great effect from a twelve- 
pounder, a mountain howitzer, and four 
rocket batteries. Similar duties were 
performed by Captains Kendrick and 
Miller. Captain T. G. Morehead, 1st 
Pennsylvania volunteers, commanding at Guadalupe, succeeded, by 
constant labour, in placing the dilapidated works of that place in 
good condition ; and although he sustained no serious attack, yet by 
frequent sorties, he was of great assistance to the garrison at San Jose. 
The colonel thus speaks of other officers : 

" To Captain Rowe, of the 9th infantry, who commanded the 
guard of one of the hospitals, (a constant point of attack both day and 
night,) I am greatly indebted for his able defence of that position, 
and his gallant bearing before the enemy. To Sergeant Mills, chief 
of the medical department, and to his assistants, great praise is due 
f br their unwearied and laborious services. Left with eighteen hun 
3E 76 




602 



LENGTH OF THE SIEGE. 



dred sick and limited supplies, with but six assistants, their utmost 
exertions were necessary to administer timely remedies to so many 
patients. Their attention to the wounded deserves my notice and 
thanks. These gentlemen were not only occupied in their profes- 
sional duties, but the want of officers and men compelled me to make 
large requisitions for the defence of the hospitals, on surgeons and 
invalids, and they were nightly on guard, marshaling their men upon 
the roofs and other points. I should be unjust to myself, and to the 
spy company under Captain Pedro Arria, if I did not call the atten- 
tion of the general-in-chief to their invaluable services. From them 
I received the most accurate information of the movements of the 
enemy, and the designs of the citizens ; through them I was enabled 
to apprehend several officers and citizens in their nightly meetings to 
consummate their plans for raising the populace. The spy company 
fought gallantly, and are now so compromised that they must leave 
the country when our army retires. The gallant charge of Lieutenant 
Waelder upon the enemy, although rash, exhibits him as an officer 
not to be intimidated by numbers. His duties have been arduous 
and dangerous, having daily to carry orders through the thickest of 
the fight. To Mr. Wengierski, secretary and translator, I am much 
indebted for invaluable services. In addition to his appropriate 
duties, he conducted the operations of the spy company, and through 
his suggestions and active exertions I received much valuable infor- 
mation, and many successful expeditions of spies into the city were 
made. Mr. Wengierski commanded the detachment on the roof of 
my quarters, and was the first man wounded. From his after efforts, 
his wound proved severe and painful ; still he performed his various 
duties night and day, and is worthy of my approbation." 

The siege of Puebla lasted forty days, and was the longest single 
military operation of the war. When we remember that it was sus- 
tained by some four hundred troops, encumbered by sick, and de- 
ficient in supplies, against an army of eight thousand, [Santa Anna's 
statements,] the result will appear astonishing. On the same da\ 
that it commenced, six thousand men, countrymen of the garrison, 
stormed almost impregnable bulwarks, defended by thirty thousand 
men, and entered triumphantly into the capital of Mexico ! 





XXXIV. 

BATTLES OF HUAMANTLA AND ATLIXCO. 

RUMOURS of the enemy's designs 
upon Puebla, and of large parties in- 
festing the road leading to that city, 
reached Vera Cruz in the latter part 
of September. In consequence of the 
information, General Lane left the 
latter place with a considerable force, and marched for the interior. 
He was not long without sight of an enemy. At the hacienda of 
Santa Anna, near the San Juan river, he came up with a party of 
guerrillas. Captain Lewis's company of mounted volunteers was 
sent in pursuit, and a portion under Lieutenant Lilly succeeded in 
overtaking them. A short skirmish ensued, in which the lieutenant 
behaved with great bravery, and finally drove the Mexicans from 
their position. After this slight interruption, the whole command 
proceeded until it reached the Paso de Ovejas, where the rear guard 
was fired upon by a small guerrilla force, and Lieutenant Cline, an 
efficient young officer, killed. 

This march was unusually fatiguing to the troops, on account of 
the heat of the weather, and nature of the road. Occasionally but a 
part of the general's force could move forward ; and frequently the 

(603) 



604 



BATTLE OF HUAMANTLA. 



artillery was greatly delayed amid ravines, passes, and other natural 
obstructions. Meanwhile rumours continued to multiply, concerning 
a large Mexican force concentrating between Perote and Puebla. 
On arriving at the former place, General Lane received confirmation 
of these reports, with the additional information that they numbered 
four thousand men, with six pieces of artillery, and were commanded 
by Santa Anna in person. At the hacienda of San Antonio Tamaris, 
he learned from his spies that the enemy were then at Huamantla, a 
city but a few miles off. He promptly determined to march there, 
and if possible, give their army battle. 

• N order to execute this 



as speedily as possible 
the general left his train 
packed at Tamaris's, 
under charge of Colonel 
Brough's regiment of 
Ohio volunteers, Cap- 
tain Simmon's battalion, 
and a battery under 
Lieutenant Pratt. With 
the remainder of the 
command, consisting 
of Colonel Wynkoop's 
battalion, Colonel 
Gorman's regiment of 
Indiana volunteers, Captain Heintzelman's battalion of six compa- 
nies, Major Lally's mounted men, under Captain Walker, and five 
pieces of artillery, under Captain Taylor. After moving forward as 
rapidly as the nature of the ground admitted, the column came in 
sight of the city at one o'clock of October 9. The troops being 
halted, the advance guard of horsemen, under Captain Walker, was 
ordered to move forward to the entrance of the city, but not to enter 
if the enemy were in force, until the arrival of the infantry. When 
within about three miles, Walker observed parties of horsemen riding 
over the fields towards the city ; and lest he might be anticipated, his 
men were put to a gallop. His progress was anxiously watched 
by General Lane, until owing to a hedge of thick maguay bushes on 
each side of the road, his movements were concealed from view. 
In a few minutes firing was heard from the city. About the same 
time a body of two thousand lancers were seen hurrying over the 
neighbouring hills, and General Lane ordered Colonel Gorman to 
advance with his regiment and enter Huamantla from the west, while 
Colonel Wynkoop moved towards the east. 




DEATH OF CAPTAIN WALKER. 



605 




APTAIN WALKER, on arriving at the 
entrance of the city, had discovered about 
five hundred of the enemy drawn up in the 
plaza. He immediately ordered a charge. 
Dashing among the Mexicans, his handful 
of men engaged hand to hand with three 
times their number, and after a close and 
bloody conflict, drove them away and cap- 
tured three guns. A vigorous pursuit 
commenced, in which many feats of daring 
were performed, among which was the 
capture of Colonel La Vega and Major 
Iturbide, by Lieutenant Anderson, of the Georgia volunteers. The 
former was a brother of General La Vega, and the latter a son of the 
unfortunate emperor of Mexico. Anderson narrowly escaped with 
his life. A Mexican lieutenant was also taken. 

After pursuing the enemy some distance, Walker's men impru- 
dently dispersed, and returned to the square in small parties. This 
was in consequence of a belief that the enemy's entire force had been 
routed. Suddenly a company of lancers charged upon the plaza, 
and succeeded in separating the Americans into bodies. A despe- 
rate fight took place, in which the Mexicans behaved with unwonted 
courage ; but by skilful maneuvering, Walker succeeded in uniting 
his forces, and entered the convent yard, where the command was 
dismounted. Here another action took place, in which the lancers 
were assisted by both artillery and infantry. Here, while directing 
the movements of his little band, Captain Walker fell mortally 
wounded, and soon afterwards expired. The enemy were driven 
back. 

The exact manner in which Walker met his death is uncertain. 
The popular account is that he was lanced during the final charge by 
a Mexican whose son he had just slain. Authority equally reliable, 
states that he was shot from a house in which was displayed a white 
flag. Few men were ever more sincerely lamented. When the cry 
" Captain Walker is dead" rang through his company, the hardy soldiers 
burst into tears ; and throughout the United States the profoundest 
emotions of sorrow were exibited at the news. He was one of the 
best officers in service ; and the fame of his exploits on the Rio Grande, 
was not only spread over America, but throughout the most important 
countries of Europe. He had been one of the leading spirits of the 
Texan revolution, and " by a strange coincidence, he fell in the 
neighbourhood of the castle, where he once pined in captivity, but 
not in his former unhappy condition, as one of a few ragged, dispirited, 
3e2 



606 



BATTLE OF HUAMANTLA. 




Major Iturbide. 



half starved prisoners, jeered at by the dastard Mexicans, but in a 
glorious battle, heading the charge of the resistless rangers and in 
the arms of victory." 

Meanwhile the main column of the American forces arrived at the 
city, and opened their fire upon masses of the enemy. Gorman, 
with the left wing of his regiment, proceeded towards the upper part 
of the town, where the enemy still were, and succeeded in dispersing 
them. At the same time Colonel Wynkoop's command had assumed 
position ; but before they could open their batteries, the Mexicans 
had fled. 

In this hard-fought action, the loss of the Americans was thirteen 
killed and eleven wounded. They succeeded in capturing one six- 
pounder brass gun, a mountain howitzer, numerous wagons, and a 
large quantity of ammunition. The Mexicans lost in killed and 
wounded one hundred and fifty. 

After this battle, General Lane marched to the relief of Colonel 



BATTLE OF ATLIXCO. 



607 




Captain Walker 



Childs. He remained at Pueblawith his whole force until the even- 
ing of the 18th of October, when information was received that the 
Mexican general, Rea, was at Atlixco, thirty miles distant, in con- 
siderable force. Lane immediately ordered his troops to be ready 
for marching on the following morning, at eleven o'clock. At that 
time he left Puebla with nearly the same force that had entered it, 
and after a forced march of five hours' duration, came in sight of the 
enemy's advance guard, near Santa Isabella. Here a halt was made, 
until the cavalry could come up from their examination of a neigh- 
bouring hacienda. Meanwhile, small parties of the enemy came to 
the foot of the hill, and opened a straggling fire, which did no execu- 
tion. On the arrival of the cavalry, Lane put his whole force in 
motion ; but as signs of confusion appeared among the Mexicans, he 
hurried on the cavalry to charge the enemy, and keep them engaged 
until the infantry could come up. As the Americans approached, 
the Mexicans retired, until at a small hill, about a mile and a half 
from their first position, they halted and fought severely. The action 
was continued until, by a forced march, the American infantry ar- 
rived, when they again fled, pursued by the cavalry. Another 



608 



BATTLE OF ATLIXCO. 



running fight of about four miles took place, during which many of 
the fugitives were cut down. When within less than two miles of 
Atlixco, the enemy's main body was observed posted on a side hill 
behind rows of chaparral hedges. Without stopping to ascertain 
their numbers, the cavalry dashed among them, dealing death, on all 
sides, and forcing them within the thickest part of their shelter. 
Then dismounting, the assailants entered the chaparral, hand to hand 
with their foe. Here the struggle was long and terrible, scores of 
the enemy falling beneath the heavy blows of their opponents. This 
continued until the arrival of the infantry, who for the last six miles 
had been straining themselves to the utmost to join the cavalry, not- 
withstanding the previous fatiguing march of sixteen miles. The 
road being intersected by numerous gullies, prevented the artillery 
from advancing faster than at a walk ; and so worn out were the 
cavalry, both through exertion and the heat of the weather, that they 
could pursue the enemy no farther. The column continued, how- 
ever, to press forward towards the town, but night had already set 
in, when it reached a hill overlooking it. But the moon shone with 
a splendour which afforded a fine view of all the surrounding coun- 
try, and enabled the American general to continue his operations 
with perfect certainty. 

S the Americans approached several shots 
were fired upon them ; and deeming it im- 
prudent to risk a street fight in an un- 
known town at night, General Lane ordered 
the artillery to be posted on a hill over- 
looking the town, and to open upon it. 
This was speedily put in execution, so that 
in a very short time the terrified inhabit- 
ants beheld flaming balls and shells hurled 
into their town, with a precision and effect 
to which their own system of warfare 
afforded no parallel. Every gun was 
served with the utmost rapidity ; and amid 
the stillness of a Mexican night scene, the 
discharges of artillery pealed for miles around, while at intervals the 
crashing of walls and roofs afforded a strange and distressing con- 
trast. This bombardment continued for nearly an hour, with great 
effect ; the gunners being enabled by the moonlight to direct their 
shot to the most populous parts of the town. 

The firing from the town had now ceased, and wishing to obtain, 
if possible, its surrender, Lane ordered Major Lally and Colonel 
Brough to advance cautiously with their commands into the town. 




LANE RETURNS TO PUEBLA. 609 

On their entering, the general was met by the ayuntamiento, or city 
council, who desired that their town might be spared. Quiet was 
accordingly restored, and on the following morning Lane disposed of 
such ammunition as could be found, and then commenced his return 
to Puebla. 

" (General Rea," says Lane, "had two pieces of artillery; but as 
soon as he was aware of our approach, he ordered them with haste 
to Matamoras, a small town eleven leagues beyond. The enemy 
state their own loss in this action to be two hundred and nineteen 
killed and three hundred wounded. On our part, we had one man 
killed and one wounded. Scarcely ever has a more rapid forced 
march been made than this, and productive of better results. Atlixco 
has been the head-quarters of guerrillas in this section of the country, 
and of late the seat of government in this state. From hence all 
expeditions have been fitted out against our troops. So much terror 
has been impressed upon them, at thus having war brought to their 
own homes, that I am inclined to believe they will give us no more 
trouble." 

Reaching Cholula, on his return, General Lane found that the 
Mexicans had just finished two pieces of artillery at Guexocingo. 
These he resolved on destroying; and proceeding to the town with 
four hundred and fifty men, he commenced a thorough search. The 
pieces had been removed, but their carriages were found and de- 
stroyed. A party of the enemy were observed in the vicinity, who 
retreated p- ecipitately ; and the next morning, without further acci- 
dent, Lane entered Puebla. 




77 




A Guerrilla. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



CAPTURE OF GUAYMAS, AND MOVEMENTS OF THE GUERRILLAS. 



HE important events attending General 
Scott's march to the capital, and the sub- 
sequent operations before Puebla, were 
followed by several battles between de- 
tached portions of the American army and 
guerrillas. 

About the same time that the battle of 
Atlixco was fought, Captain Lavallette 
[October 15-16] entered the port of 
Guaymas, a small town on the gulf coast, 
with part of the American squadron, 
consisting of the frigate Congress, the 
sloop of war Portsmouth, and the brig Argo. On the 18th, the latte* 
(610) 




CAPTURE OF GUAYMAS. 



613 




Capture of Guaymas: 



vessel anchored between the islands of Almagre Grande and Alma- 
gre Chico, on each of which a mortar was planted. The other ves- 
sels had already taken their stations. A flag was despatched to the 
authorities, through Mr. William Robinson, who, on being conducted 
to the governor, explained to him the object of the Americans, and 
advised a surrender. He was answered, that to surrender the town 
would be entirely incompatible with the honour both of the governor 
and Mexican nation. Mr. Robinson then returned to the Argo. 

On the 19th, the Congress and Portsmouth took up their positions 
of attack. At the same time, the place was formally summoned to 
surrender, but the Mexicans artfully eluded an answer until night. 
Then, favoured by the darkness, the commandant marched silently to 
a position, three miles distant, where he had previously placed a 
battery of fourteen guns, to resist the Americans, should they attempt 
to penetrate into the interior. At six o'clock on the morning of the 
20th, the fire of the assailants opened from both vessels of war, and 
two mortars, and continued for more than an hour. Five hundred 
shells and shot were thrown into the town, killing one English resi- 
dent, and destroying several houses. Being abandoned by their gar- 
rison, the citizens signified their willingness to listen to terms, when 
a party of American sailors and marines landed and ran up the 
national flag on a fort defending the Casa Blanca hill. At the same 
time, Lavallette issued a proclamation, claiming the town and port 
for the United States, ordering the surrender of all public property 
and establishing throughout the district an efficient civil and military 
police. The Mexican authorities were invited to continue in office 



612 



ATTACK ON M ATA M OKAS. 




religion and church property were placed under the American pro- 
tection, and the customary routine of business was ordered to be re- 
sumed. Mr. Robinson was made collector of the port. 

About the same time another portion of the squadron captured the 
port of Mazatlan, also on the gulf coast. 

The operations of General Lane, at Atlixco and Huamantla, were 
followed by a successful attack upon the town of Matamoras, which 
had been for a long time a principal rendezvous for guerrillas. After 
a slight skirmish, a party of Mexican lancers were defeated with loss, 
and the general took measures to hinder his being in future disturbed 
by them. 

In the month of November, events of the most unhappy kind oc- 
curred at Mexico, tending to cast a shade over the proud enthusiasm 
of the officers, who had so heroically followed their leader to the con- 
quest of the famed city of Montezuma. By an article in the mili- 
tary code, "private letters or reports, relative to military marches 
and operations" being " frequently mischievous in design, and 



DIFFICULTIES AMONG THE OFFICERS. 



613 



always disgraceful to the army" are strictly forbidden ; " and any 
officer found guilty of making such report for publication, without 
special permission, or of placing the writing beyond his control, so 
that it finds its way to the press, within one month after the termina- 
tion of the campaign, to which it relates, shall be dismissed from the 
service."* Some time after the victories of August 19 and 20, ex- 
tracts from private letters, dated, " Tacubaya, Mexico, August 24, 
1847," purporting to be an original account of the battles of Contre- 
ras and Churubusco, appeared in the Pittsburg Post. By some means 
this account, copied in a Tampico paper, together with a similar one, 
from a New Orleans paper, fell into the hands of the general-in- 
chief, who immediately issued an order, denouncing the letters as 
despicable and scandalous, and intimating the general's surmisings 
of their authors. On the following day, Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan 
addressed a card to one of the leading Mexican papers, avowing his 
connection with the Pittsburg letter, and endeavouring to exculpate 
the generals suspected by the commander, from all blame. He and 
General Worth were the same day placed under arrest. Subsequently 
General Pillow was also arrested for contempt to his superior. On 
receiving news of this transaction, government suspended the gene- 
ral-in-chief himself, on specified charges, preferred in part as an ap- 
peal by General Worth, ordered a court-martial to try him with the 
other officers, and placed the army under command of Major-General 
Butler. 

ENERAL TOWSON, paymaster-general, 
was appointed president of the court. 
The other members, first named by Presi- 
dent Polk, were Brigadier- General Caleb 
Cushing, and Colonel E. G. W. Butler. 
Lieutenant Hammond was named as chief 
advocate. Subsequently Colonel Butler 
was relieved, and brevet Colonel Belknap 
appointed in his place. In like manner, 
Captain S. C. Ridgely succeeded Lieu- 
tenant Hammond, as judge advocate and 
recorder. Perote was first named as the place of meeting, but this 
was afterwards changed to Puebla. 

On the 18th of February, 1848, this body met at the last named 
city. After remaining in session there for some time, it was re- 
moved to Fredericktown, Maryland. All the officers accused were 
present, and the deliberations occupied the attention of the court, 




* General Regulations of the Army, March 1, 1825. 

3F 



614 



PADRE JARAUTA. 




General Towson. 



until after the close of the war. The proceedings, as they transpired, 
were published daily, both in the United States and Mexico. They 
excited but one feeling throughout the country — that of regret, that 
the gallant men who had carried themselves so nobly through the 
trying scenes of a two years' war, should, at its close, be involved 
in such unfortunate and unsatisfactory difficulties. 

After the fall of the capital, General Twiggs had been ordered to 
Jalapa, to organize a train, for the main army, and keep in check the 
neighbouring guerrillas. On the 19th of November, he left that 
city, with a considerable force and marched for Mexico. About the 
same time General Butler also entered the capital with a train, and 
supplies. 

General Patterson, during all that part of the campaign following 
Scott's march from Puebla, had been stationed at Vera Cruz, endea- 
vouring to keep open the communication with the advancing army, as 
well as to chastise the guerrillas who swarmed in that vicinity. These 
roaming bands were organized and encouraged by the famous Padre 
Jarauta, an ecclesiastic, who, abandoning his sacerdotal duties, or rathe 



PADRE JARAUTA. 



615 




General Patterson. 



combining them with those of the soldier, had thrown the whole weight 
of his influence against the friends of peace. Troops armed and fur- 
nished by him went forth as to a crusade, and became far more trouble- 
some to the Americans than Santa Anna's army. The padre's followers 
were as daring in their efforts to cut off the American trains, as they 
were unscrupulous in the use of what victory threw into their hands. 
Frequently they approached within pistol-shot of their opponent's 
camp, and on several occasions, as has been mentioned in a previous 
chapter, actually entered at night into Vera Cruz, and carried away 
mules or horses. During the operations before the capital, they com- 
mitted frightful depredations between that city and Vera Cruz, and 
cut off all communication between these two portions of the army. 
The mails were frequently stopped and plundered by them, and such 
delay caused to those which escaped, that frequently more than a 
month transpired after the usual time of delivery. From this cause 
General Scott's reports of the battles of August, did not reach Wash- 
ington until the middle of November. To the partial success of the 
guerrillas may be attributed the obstinacy of the Mexicans in refusing 
to listen to terms of peace. 



616 



CAPTURE OF GENERAL VALENCIA. 




ENERAL PATTERSON, in the fall 
of 1847, left Vera Cruz with his 
division and a large train, and ad 
vanced by easy marches to Jalapa. 
The command of the former place 
was intrusted to Colonel Wilson. On 
the 25th of November, Patterson left 
Jalapa with six thousand men, en 
route for the capital. Before his de- 
parture [November 23d] he had 
hung two American teamsters for the 
murder of a Mexican boy, and on 
the following day shot two Mexican 
officers, Garcia and Alcade, for violation of parole. This pro- 
ceeding caused so much excitement among the people that an 
open insurrection seemed for awhile inevitable ; and the neighbour- 
ing guerrilla bands exerted themselves to the utmost to revenge their 
countrymen. After suppressing these demonstrations of revolt, Pat- 
terson recommenced his journey, and reached the city of Mexico 
December 6. 

About the middle of December, a body of Americans were attacked 
near Mazatlan, by some guerrillas, led by an officer named Mijares. 
He was killed, and his men repulsed with considerable loss. A 
similar engagement, farther to the north, also resulted in victory to 
the American arms. On the night of the 21st, an expedition was 
sent to Cholula, to apprehend some American officers. A fight took 
place, in which three of the enemy were killed and three wounded. 

Early in January, the Mexican general, Valencia, was captured by 
a small party especially organized for the purpose. The particulars 
are given by a member of the army. " Colonel F. M. Wynkoop, of 
the 1st Pennsylvania volunteers, having learned by a Mexican friend, 
that Padre Jarauta and General Rea were at Tlalnepanatla, about five 
leagues from the city of Mexico, applied to General Scott for permis- 
sion to take twenty men and capture them. Permission being granted, 
the colonel set off on the 1st [January,] with thirty-eight Texan 
rangers, under command of Lieutenants Daggerts, Burkes, and Jones, 
Upon arriving at, and charging Tlalnepanatla, and finding no one 
there, they learned that Rea and Jarauta had left for Toluco, a few 
hours previous to our arrival. Colonel Wynkoop here learned that 
General Valencia and his staff were at a hacienda some six leagues 
distant. He immediately set off with his party, and arrived at the 
hacienda, which he surrounded. Admittance into the house was de- 
manded by the party, but for a time refused, when Colonel Siba, a 



CAPTURE OF MEXICAN OFFICERS. 



617 



■wounded Mexican officer on parole, opened the door and assured 
Colonel Wynkoop that General Valencia had departed that day for 
Toluco ; but this not being credited, lights were demanded to search 
the building. Colonel Siba then proposed to deliver General Va- 
lencia the next day, if the party would leave. To this the colonel 
would not assent, but proposed to send an officer and eight men with 
him to await their return. This proposition completely disconcerted 
Colonel Siba, thus convincing Colonel Wynkoop that Valencia was 
really in the house. Search was accordingly made, but he could not 
be found. The colonel then declared that he would not leave the 
hacienda without him ; that if Valencia would give himself up, he 
would be perfectly safe, but that he could not answer for his life 
should he attempt an escape. At this moment a person stepped up 
and said, 'I am Valencia.' He then said that it was against the 
usages of civilized warfare to attack a man in the peace and quiet of 
his family in the dead hour of night. The colonel answered that it 
was the only way he could be captured. Colonel Arrera was also 
captured in the same hacienda on that night." 

About a week after, another capture of officers took place, in the 
neighbourhood of Santa Fe. About fifty guerrillas, under Colonel Ze- 
nobia, were charged and dispersed by Colonel Dominguez, after which 
the latter proceeded to the plains of Salva, where he received a com- 
munication from the neighbouring haciendas, requesting his assistance 
in liberating the inhabitants from the tyranny of General Torrejon. 
On the 6th, Dominguez charged the Mexican party, and after a short 
skirmish dispersed it, capturing Generals Torrejon, Minon, Guana, 
fifty cavalry, and two deserters. The Mexican general had with him 
one hundred and fifty men, being on his way to join some forces at 
San Andres, and proceed thence to Orizaba. The American force 
was seventy. 

HESE losses only tended to render the 
guerrillas more daring and revengeful. 
About the 1st of January, a large train, 
composed of many wagons, and carry- 
ing a great amount of specie, set out 
for the interior, under the direction of 
Colonel Miles. The rear portion of 
the train was unable to leave until the 
morning of the 4th. In moving over 
the heavy sand, the train and pack 
mules became so scattered, that a 
company of mounted riflemen, under Lieutenant Walker, were 
thrown seven miles behind the main body of the wagon train. At 
3f2 78 




618 



BATTLE WITH THE GUERRILLAS. 




O 



nine o'clock, word was received that a guerrilla party at Santa Fe, 
had captured some of the packs scattered along the road. At this 
information, Lieutenant Walker left ten men with some wagons which 
had not been able to keep up, and moving towards Santa Fe, came 
in sight of the enemy, drawn up in order of battle. A charge was 
ordered, when the guerrillas scattered in different directions, and 
opened a heavy fire upon the lieutenant's little company. All com- 
munication with the main party was thus cut off, and Walker sent 
back to Vera Cruz for assistance. The enemy's fire so frightened 
the horses of the rifle company, that they were obliged to dismount 
and fight on the open prairie. Five of his men were killed and five 
wounded. The Mexicans captured three hundred pack mules, and 
about one hundred thousand dollars in specie. 

k N the 12th of January, Colonel 
Hays, with one hundred rangers 
and a few Illinois volunteers, 
reached Teotihuacan, twelve leagues 
north-east of Mexico, in pursuit of 
Jarauta. Here, while the party were 
reposing at a hacienda, with their 
horses unbridled and unsaddled, the 
padre came suddenly upon them with 
a party of guerrillas. With wonted 
presence of mind, the colonel in- 
stantly rallied his men, when a most 
severe battle took place, the rangers being on foot. Unfortunately 
for the assailants, their shot were fired too high, and consequently 
produced no effect. Eight of their number were killed. The padre 
himself is said to have been severely wounded, and one of his men 
made prisoner. 

About this time the towns of Serma, Toluco, and Pachuca, were 
occupied by different portions of the American army, principally from 
the command of General Cadwalader. Orizaba was also taken by a 
detachment of five hundred cavalry under General Lane. 

On the 14th of January, a train of two thousand wagons, escorted 
by a squadron of cavalry, two companies of dragoons, a voltigeur 
corps with six pieces, and some battalions of infantry — the whole 
under Major Cadwalader, of the voltigeurs — left the city of Mexico 
on the 14th, en route for Vera Cruz. Great efforts were made by the 
guerrillas to cut off portions of this train, but without success. It 
arrived safely on the coast, January 27th, bringing with it a number 
of officers. 

In the same month, Colonel Childs intercepted certain letters of a 



CONSPIRACY AT PUEBLA. 



619 




Colonel Bankhead. 



treasonous nature at Puebla. A conspiracy had been formed there 
by General Rea, and some of his associates, to assassinate Don Ra- 
phael Isunza, the Mexican governor of state, and murder such of the 
inhabitants as were in favour of peace with the United States. The 
object of this movement was to abolish the existing government, and 
proclaim Rea dictator. Colonel Childs immediately took efficient 
measures to prevent the execution of this diabolical plot, and issued a 
proclamation ordering all spies to leave the city, and rendering it 
penal for any of the inhabitants to hold communication with the 
guerrillas. No attempt was made to carry the plan into execution. 

On the 7th of February, two large trains left Vera Cruz, one for 
Orizaba, and the other for the city of Mexico. The first was escorted 
by sixteen hundred men, under Colonel Bankhead, who, since the 
16th of December, had been civil and military governor of Vera 
Cruz. Both trains arrived safely at their destination, although keenly 
watched by the guerrillas. A short time previous to this, [December 
12, 1847,] General Scott had issued an order against the guerrillas 
by which every American post established in Mexico was authorized 
to push daily detachments as far as practicable upon the roads, in 
order to protect them from the marauding parties. "No quarters," 
says the order, " will be given to known murderers or robbers, 



620 



ORDER AGAINST THE GUERRILLAS. 



whether called guerrillas or rancheros, and whether serving under 
Mexican commissions or not. They are equally pests to unguarded 
Mexicans, foreigners, and small parties of Americans, and ought to 
be exterminated. Offenders of the above character, accidentally fall- 
ing into the hands of the American troops, will be momentarily held 
as prisoners, that is, not put to death without due solemnity. Ac- 
cordingly, they will be reported to commanding officers, who will, 
without delay, order a council of war for the summary trial of the 
offenders, under the known laws of war applicable to such cases. 

" A council of war may consist of any number of officers not less 
ihan three nor more than thirteen, and may, for any flagrant viola- 
tion of the laws of war, condemn to death, or to lashes, not exceed- 
ing fifty, on satisfactory proof that such prisoner, at the time of 
capture, actually belonged to any party or gang of known robbers 01 
murderers, or had actually committed murder or robbery upon any 
American officer or soldier, or follower of the American army." 

This order called forth active operations from the different por- 
tions of General Scott's army, and several guerrilla parties were en- 
tirely broken up, or driven from the neighbourhood. Yet such was 
the recklessness of these marauding bands, that the roads continued 
to be infested, and travellers or stragglers from the American army 
to be murdered. Arrests were made, and the prisoners executed, 
until the close of the war. 





CHAPTER XXXVI. 




OPERATIONS IN CALIFORNIA AND NEW MEXICO. 

HE apparent tranquillity 
which followed the esta- 
blishment of American au- 
thority in California and 
New Mexico, was never 
very profound, nor of long 
duration. However advantageous a 
change of government may be to any 
people, they are apt to regard it, if for- 
cibly imposed by an invading army, with 
a jealous eye, and to take every means 
to effect a counter revolution. This 
has received the most ample confirmation during the Mexican war, 
wherein the Mexicans have been protected in life, religion, and pro- 
perty, and yet look upon their protectors as robbers of the most 
aggravated character. Although California has never professed any 
^ (621) 




622 OPERATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 

other than a nominal allegiance to the Mexican government, and fre- 
quently has declared against her, yet is this feeling against the Ame- 
ricans as strong there as in the central provinces ; and from the 
moment of Fremont's entrance into the territory, until the close of the 
war, this region was held only by the strict hand of military power. 
In July, 1847, three companies of the 7th regiment of New York 
volunteers under Lieutenant-Colonel Burton, arrived in the vicinity 
of La Paz, Lower California. They numbered about one hundred 
men, with two pieces of artillery. Towards the close of September, 
the sloop of war Dale sailed from La Paz to Mulege, a port near the 
head of the Californian gulf, where a party of Mexicans, with arms 
and ammunition, were reported to be collected for the purpose of 
raising a revolution. On entering, the Dale hoisted her colours, and 
sent a flag on shore, requesting the surrender of the town. The 
Mexican authorities answered, that acting as they did under advice 
from government, they could not listen to the demand, and that if 
the sloop approached within gun range, she would be fired upon. 
On receiving this reply, the Dale entered the port, but was not fired 
upon. Next day eighty men were sent on shore, who were fired 
upon while landing, but afterwards chased a party of Mexicans for 
two or three miles ; night coming on, they were withdrawn. At the 
same time, a few shells were thrown into the town, and a schooner 
burnt. On the following morning, the Dale left for La Paz, bringing 
the information that two hundred Mexicans were marching towards 
that place, and might be expected in a few days. This report, how- 
ever, proved incorrect. 

N the latter part of October, Commodore 
Shubrick arrived at San Jose, and 
ordered the Dale to Guaymas, to re- 
lieve the Portsmouth. This deprived 
Colonel Burton of all naval assistance, 
and entirely cut off his retreat, in case 
of necessity. Unwilling to remain in 
this situation, the colonel proceeded to 
San Jose, in order to obtain from the 
commodore two hundred men with which he hoped to quiet the 
country. His request was refused, and the commodore sailed for 
Mazatlan. 

Meanwhile, the enemy were using the most strenuous efforts to 
raise a force sufficient to rid themselves of the American troops. 
Leaving Mulege, they passed through the country, robbing ranchos, 
and committing the greatest depredations upon the property even of 
their own citizens. Several of these marauding bands, after securing 




BATTLE OF LA PAZ. 



623 



all the arms, provisions, money, and stores they could possibly raise, 
concentrated at San Antonio, formed a territorial junta or congress, 
and issued proclamations to the inhabitants. These movements had 
the effect of bringing out the whole region against the little garrison 
at La Paz. Those who had hitherto taken no active part in military 
operations, now engaged in the campaign with the zeal of crusaders. 
Between one and two o'clock of the morning of November 16th, 
Burton's men were wakened by a loud roll of musketry, followed by 
shouts from an unseen enemy. Thus suddenly roused, each man 
sought his post amid a shower of balls. The night was so excessively 
dark, that they gained knowledge of the enemy's position only by 
the flash from their guns, and the Mexicans' battle cry. The enemy's 
balls continued to whistle among the garrison, until the Americans 
brought their cannon within range, when a few volleys were followed 
by a dead silence. Expecting, momentarily, a renewal of the attack, 
the troops remained in position until daylight, when they discovered 
that the enemy, about three hundred in number, had entered the 
town and posted themselves on a hill, about a quarter of a mile dis- 
tant. Here they were awaiting the removal of the women and chil- 
dren, in order to begin the main attack. 

BOUT nine o'clock on the morn- 
ing of the 16th, a heavy firing 
commenced from some thick cac- 
tus-bushes, which almost sur- 
rounded the camp. Among these 
the Mexicans were concealed so 
carefully, that their presence was 
known only through the flashes 
of musketry. During the whole 
morning the Americans had la- 
boured to fortify their position, 
covering the roofs of houses with 
bales of cotton yarn. As the 
Mexicans were several hundred yards off, the garrison lay down, in 
order to entice them nearer ; but, being posted with perfect security 
in an old building near a grave yard, the enemy would not approach, 
and thus an idle fire was maintained until noon. The Americans 
had one man killed. 

At four o'clock, P. M., the enemy concentrated their forces, en- 
tered the town, and set fire to a number of houses belonging to those 
who had favoured the Americans. In returning from this barbarous 
proceeding, they passed a low hill in front of the American barracks, 
which immediately opened upon them. A shower of grape and 





624 BATTLE OF LA PAZ. 

canister, sweeping through their ranks, killed ten or twelve, and 
caused so much confusion as to drive back the survivors from the 
streets. As the sun went down the firing ceased, leaving only the 
lurid glare of burning buildings as the finale of this busy and ex- 
citing day. 

In this first day's skirmish, the American force was one hundred 
and twenty-six, the Mexicans at least three hundred. One company 
of the former, consisting of sixty men, was placed on the roof of the 
main building, under Captain S. G. Steele and Lieutenant Penrose. 
The other company was in the barracks on the opposite side of the 
square, and on the roof, under command of Lieutenants Matsell and 
Buffum. The volunteers were partly under Lieutenant Young, and 
partly with the artillery of Lieutenant Lemon. 

N the morning following, a large party of the 
enemy were observed on a hill two miles dis- 
tant, where they had hoisted a flag. Among 
them were about sixty Yake Indians from Sonora. 
The whole command was mounted on spirited 
horses, and armed with muskets and rifles. The 
commander was Manuel Pineda, a lieutenant in 
the Mexican army, with whom were associated a 
number of leaders from the eastern coast, and two or three from Cali- 
fornia. After daylight a few shots were fired at the Americans, but 
without effect. The latter improved the temporary cessation by 
digging an intrenchment around the square, burning a number of 
small houses which obstructed their cannon-range, and strengthening 
as much as possible their lines of defence. In this position the par- 
ties remained for several days, each waiting an attack from the other. 
On the 20th a proclamation, signed by Pineda, was found posted 
at different places in the town, promising to treat all Americans with 
lenity, and stating the determination of the Mexicans to conquer 
Burton's party. The latter redoubled their vigilance, threw up a 
breastwork around the main buildings, and a barricade around the 
cannon, fortified all the roofs, and were constantly at their posts. 

At noon of the same day, a party of footmen were observed drag- 
ging a piece of artillery through the surrounding thickets, towards a 
building known as the Old Quartel, which, although the most promi- 
nent position of the town, the Americans had failed to occupy, on 
account of its dilapidated condition. This position reached, a fire 
commenced simultaneously from all sides. The showers of slugs and 
shot from this gun were answered by grape from the American can- 
non, and for a little while the action was warmly contested. A heavy 
shell, exploding among the Mexicans, drove them from their posi- 



BATTLE OF SAN JOSE, 



625 



tion, and silenced their piece ; but they continued a heavy fire of 
musketry from the Quartel, and other places. During the whole 
time the monotonous tapping of a drum was heard, evidently with 
the design of exciting the assailants to valour. The battle continued 
until night, the darkness of which enabled the enemy to creep quite 
near to the works, and shelter themselves behind some adjacent 
banks. The battle continued, at intervals the garrison discharging 
musketry and cannon-shot, and receiving showers of rifle balls and 
Indian arrows. At eight o'clock the assailants withdrew, with the 
loss of six men. 

Next morning ten men entered the Quartel, hoisted the Mexican 
flag, and commenced firing. When this had continued more than 
an hour, Captain Stell, with twenty men, was sent against them. 
He surprised the party, killing six and taking their flag, which was 
immediately inverted under that of the garrison. This check caused 
their whole force to retire ; but they spread themselves in the neigh- 
bourhood, to await reinforcements and cut off supplies from the 
American camp. 

^HILE this "battle was going 
on at La Paz, a party of 
one hundred and fifty 
Mexicans, under Antonio 
Mejares, approached San 
Jose, where Lieutenant Heywood, of 
the United States marines, was sta- 
tioned, with twenty men and a nine- 
pounder. On the 20th of November, 
they sent in a flag of truce, with a de- 
mand to surrender, which was refused, 
and ten o'clock, P. M., the 
After the firing had 




The Mexican flasr was then 



run up, 
attack upon the American position commenced, 
continued all night and the following day, a grand assault was made 
on the ensuing night. At eleven o'clock, a party of forty men, under 
Mejares, charged in front, while a hundred, with scaling-ladders, 
were placed in the rear. When they had arrived in front of the nine- 
pounder, it suddenly opened upon them, killing their intrepid leader, 
with three of his men, and driving back the others in confusion. A 
similar discharge against those in the rear, was attended with simi- 
lar results. A firing of musketry was, however, kept up until morn- 
ing. On the following day two American whalers entered the har- 
bour, and sent fifty men on shore. These vessels were mistaken by 
the enemy for ships of war, on which they retreated in haste to 
La Paz. 

3G 79 



626 DISCONTENT OF THE CALIFORNIANS. 

Previous to this battle, various alterations in command had taken 
place in Upper California, New Mexico, and along the Pacific coast. 
A battalion of Mormons having reached the plains of California, 
united their efforts with those of the regular army in restoring order 
in the affairs of government. Previous to sailing for the United 
States, Commodore Stockton had declared the whole country to be 
tranquil, and the inhabitants pleased with the change of government. 
Allured by these representations, and the temptations held out by 
government, numbers of emigrants left the United States, and set out 
to find a new home beyond the Rocky Mountains. The hopes of 
these adventurers seem, in many cases, to have been disappointed. 
Several of their parties, while crossing the mountains, were overtaken 
by snow storms, during which many perished. So great was the 
scarcity of provisions, that whole parties were reduced to a few 
meagre, famished wretches, whose only food was the horrid repast 
afforded by the bodies of their dead companions. On arriving in the 
country, they in some places found the soil of surprising fertility ; but, 
in other instances, large companies found themselves on desert tracts, 
trodden, from time immemorial, only by the Indian and his savage 
companions of the brute creation. 

Neither had the condition of affairs continued such as had been 
represented by the commodore, in his report to government. As has 
been remarked in the opening of the present chapter, the Mexicans, 
throughout all their provinces, looked upon the Americans more in 
the light of invaders than friends ; and consequently, although they 
felt in some measure the superiority of the government established by 
General Kearny, yet they permitted no opportunity to escape which 
appeared favourable for shaking off the imposed yoke. 

HIS involved the whole country in a series 
J of civil broils, the more vexatious from 
", their being apparently endless. The truth 
TT is that in California and New Mexico, as 
E in other parts of the republic, the Ameri- 
cans could positively claim only so much 
of the soil as they occupied with their 
army; and even that was lost as soon 
as deserted by a competent defensive 
force. 

After Stockton's departure, Commodore Shubrick, was placed in 
command of the squadron operating upon that portion of the coast 
which borders on California. This officer imposed upon several of 
the neighbouring towns a tariff of duties, and adopted such measures 
as was in his power, for the security of the adjoining provinces. 




COMMODORE BIDDLE's OPERATIONS. 627 

Early in 1847, Commodore Biddle took charge of the entire squadron. 
One of his first acts was to annul a former act of Commodore Stock- 
ton, placing the Pacific coast under blockade. The repeal of this 
onerous measure was equally gratifying to the American residents 
and the crews of foreign nations. The ports of Guaymas and Ma- 
zatlan were, however, placed under control of the squadron, the 
ships of which maintained an ascendency in the neighbourhood until 
the capture of these towns, as formerly related. 

Meanwhile General Price had been placed in New Mexico, with a 
considerable force, and used great efforts to restore tranquillity in the 
province. Late in January, 1848, he ordered three companies of 
United States dragoons, nine of horse, five of infantry, and one com- 
pany of light artillery, to concentrate at El Paso, preparatory to a 
march upon Chihuahua. On the 23d of February, the general ar- 
rived there in person, with one company of Missouri horse. Here 
he immediately commenced active preparations for the intended 
expedition. While thus engaged, he received such information as 
confirmed previous reports, respecting the enemy's hostility, and of 
their fabricating cannon and other implements to resist the march to 
El Paso. The Mexican residents in this quarter were in a state of 



* The real condition of these distant provinces during the war, seems never to have 
been understood by either the people or government of our country. Although New 
Mexico was in almost open hostility to the central government, yet the feeling against 
the Americans was as strong there as in the more southern provinces. The favourable 
disposition, over which the first conquerors were accustomed to congratulate them- 
selves, was never any thing but the deceitful lull which is quiet only because it thereby 
husbands the power of the approaching hurricane. Commodore Stockton and Colonel 
Fremont certainly deserve great credit for the brilliant style in which they accomplished 
the conquest of California ; but the means at their disposal were totally inadequate to 
secure permanently the conquests which they had made. Considering the small force 
of the Americans in California and their distance from any support or supplies, it must 
always be a subject of astonishment and admiration that they were ever able to gain any 
foothold in the country ; and still more remarkable is it that, in opposition to the con- 
cealed but bitter hostility of the people, they should have been able to hold possession 
of the country to the close of the war. 

One of the most determined as well as important demonstrations of hostility evinced 
by the people of this region was their opposition to General Price's expedition. The 
country through which he passed had already been conquered by Commodore Stockton 
and General Kearny, and portions of it reconquered by Fremont. In many of the 
towns, local governments had been established, and the oath of allegiance administered 
to the inhabitants. But these conquests were but the effects of the presence of a 
large military force, having in them nothing of the will or the affections. Secret con- 
spiracies against the Americans were continually carried on ; and as the garrisons of the 
conquered towns grew weaker, the conspirators threw off" by degrees their reserve, and 
banded in open opposition to our forces. It will cease then to excite our wonder that 
notwithstanding the efficient army of General Price, he found himself at every town 
surrounded with armed foes with whom several battles had to be fought before he could 
be considered even in safety. 




628 OPERATIONS IN NEW MEXICO. 

revolt against American authority ; and the general soon found that 
he was likely to be opposed at every step of his progress. 

[NDER these circumstances, the American com- 
mander resolved on changing his original plan 
of operations, and by forced marches with his 
best troops, to strike a blow upon the enemy 
before he could adopt measures of defence. 
Accordingly, on the night of the 24th, he de- 
spatched Major Walker, with three companies 
of the Santa Fe battalion of horse, to occupy 
the small town of Carrizal, distant ninety miles from El Paso, and so 
situated as to command all the passes leading to Chihuahua. This 
command had orders to reconnoiter the country, cut off all com- 
munication by establishing strong pickets, and make every effort to 
obtain information respecting the designs and movements of the 
enemy. 

On the night of March 6th, when within sixty miles of Chihuahu?, 
a small party of the advance came upon one of the enemy's picket?, 
but was unable to capture it. Aware that his march would be known 
on the following morning, the general pushed forward his command 
with all haste, until he arrived at Laguna, six miles from the Sacra- 
mento. Here he was met by a flag of truce, from the general command- 
ing the Mexican forces, who protested against the advance upon Chi- 
huahua, on the ground that instructions had been received from the 
Mexican government, suspending hostilities, as a treaty of peace had 
been concluded and signed by commissioners on behalf of both govern- 
ments. Although this assertion afterwards proved to be correct, 
Price did not consider the evidence adduced as conclusive, and 
would not receive the protest. The bearer of the flag then requested 
that two American officers might accompany him to his superiors, in 
order to arrange terms of capitulation. To this the general con- 
sented, naming Captain McKissick and Lieutenant Prince as the two 
negotiators. 

Fearful, however, of treachery on the enemy's part, he, that night, 
moved his command rapidly upon Chihuahua. After about an hour's 
march, he was met by some American residents of the city, who 
informed him that on the morning previous, the Mexican army had 
hastily retreated, taking with them all their munitions of war. 

General Price had anticipated this event, and prepared for it. On 
the day before, Beall's dragoons were detached, so that by a forced 
march over the mountains, they might occupy the Durango road, 
and possibly encounter the Mexicans during their hurried retreat. 
These troops executed their mission in the most satisfactory manner, 



PRICES OPERATIONS. 



629 



but owing to the nature of the road, and the lateness of the hour of 
starting, they could not come up with the flying foe. 

The Americans, at nine o'clock P. M., of March 7, took posses- 
sion of Chihuahua. On the following morning, General Price selected 
about two hundred and fifty men, mostly mounted, and pursued the 
retreating Mexicans. At sunrise of the 9th, he reached the tow T n of 
Santa Cruz de Rosales, sixty miles of Chihuahua, where the enemy 
had strongly fortified themselves. Here the general halted his troops 
and commenced a careful reconnoissance of his opponent's numbers 
and position. Notwithstanding the great superiority of the enemy 
in men, ammunition, and stores, he determined to attack their works 
by storm. Preparatory to this, he dismounted the commands of 
Rail and Walker, to act as infantry, and posting Beall's dragoons in 
reserve, to intercept the enemy's flight, in case of success, he chose 
the west side of the town for Rail's assault, and the south-east angle 
for Walker's. He then despatched Lieutenant Prince, with a flag of 
truce, to demand an unconditional surrender of the town and public 
property. 

On receiving this summons General Trias, the Mexican leader, re- 
quested an interview with the American commander. His reasons 
for this request were the same as those for w r hich he had previously 
protested against the march to Chihuahua — that official notice had ar- 
rived from the Mexican government of a treaty of peace having been 
signed by commissioners on behalf of both powers. General Trias 
solemnly affirmed that he himself had no doubt as to the truth of this 
statement, which, as he believed, would be confirmed in a few days 
by a courier express. On the credit of these assurances, General 
Price was willing to withdraw his forces for a few days, taking the 
precaution to besiege the town, and send for reinforcements. 

IEUTENANT-COLONEL LANE, 
with the expected reinforce- 
ments arrived about daylight 
of the 16th. They consisted 
of three companies of Mis- 
souri horse, under Lane, and 
Love's battery of artillery. 
With this accession to his 
numbers, General Price de- 
termined to risk an assault 
in order to end a siege which 
had become peculiarly trying 
to his soldiers. Careful re- 
connoissances convinced him that the enemy had expected this event 
3g2 




630 



PRICES OPERATIONS. 



to take place on that part of the town which fronted the American 
camp, and had there prepared for it. To take advantage of this 
opinion, General Price determined on changing his original plan, 
and by moving rapidly to some weaker point, assault and carry it 
before the garrison could recover themselves. 

Accordingly, at seven o'clock, A. M., he broke up his camp, and 
with his whole force, except Beall's dragoons, and a company of 
Missouri horse, marched to the western side of the town. Here 
Lieutenant-Colonel Lane, with two companies of the Missouri regi- 
ment, was ordered to support Love's battery, which had taken posi- 
tion within five hundred yards of the town, on the road leading to 
Chihuahua, and commanding the principal plaza and church, around 
and in which the enemy were strongly posted. Walker's battalion 
was placed towards the south ; while between these two commands 
were four companies of Rail's troops, conducted by the general in 
person. 

At half past ten, the American batteries opened. For nearly an 
hour a heavy fire was poured into the town, destroying houses, and 
other buildings, and gradually driving the enemy from their positions. 
It was answered by heavy guns and wall pieces, which produced, 
however, little or no effect upon the assailants. Shortly after sun- 
down, the garrison surrendered. General Trias and forty-two of his 
principal officers were made prisoners ; while eleven pieces of artil- 
lery, nine wall pieces, and five hundred and seventy-seven stand of 
arms fell into the hands of the Americans. The loss of the assailants 
was one lieutenant, two corporals, and one private killed ; and nine- 
teen men wounded ; that of the enemy is stated by General Price 
to have been several hundred. On the 21st, General Armijo, ex-go- 
vernor of New Mexico, surrendered himself to the victors. 

This battle closed the military events of the war in California and 
New Mexico. 





CHAPTER XXXVII. 



CLOSE OF THE WAR. 




HE remaining military operations of the war may be 
summed up in a few words. General Lane left the 
capital on the 17th of February, 1848, and after an 
unsuccessful attempt to capture General Paredes, at a 
hacienda called San Christoval, he subsequently en- 
countered and defeated a party commanded by Padre Jarauta, and 
returned to the capital on the 1st of March. 

The abortive attempts of Mr. Trist to establish peace, immediately 
after the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, did not terminate his 
mission as a negotiator with the Mexican republic. Efforts were 
made both by himself and General Scott, from time to time, for the 
purpose of bringing about so desirable a result. These were at length 
crowned with success. In January, the general-in-chief laid before 
the Mexican authorities the basis of a treaty, similar in its general 
features to the one formerly rejected. They appointed Luis G. 
Cuevas, Bernardo Conto, and Miguel Atristain as commissioners. 

(631) 



632 



CLOSE OF THE WiR. 



Mr. Trist acted as the representative of the United States. The 
negotiators met at Guadalupe Hidalgo, and after a reciprocal com- 
munication of their respective powers, arranged and signed a " treaty 
of peace, friendship, limits and settlement between the United States 
of America and the Mexican Republic." 

In February, this instrument arrived in Washington, and was trans- 
mitted by President Polk to the American Senate. After a secret 
session of several days, that body, on the 10th of March, at a 
quarter past nine o'clock, P. M., agreed to it, after a few alterations, 
by a vote of thirty-seven to fifteen, four senators being absent. 
On the 14th, Mr. Sevier w T as appointed envoy extraordinary and 
minister plenipotentiary, to present the treaty as amended to the 
Mexican congress for their final action. He was accompanied by 
Mr. Clifford. On arriving in Mexico, these gentlemen immediately 
submitted the treaty to the national congress, then assembled at 
Queretaro. After a long and animated discussion, it passed the 
House of Deputies by a large majority, and on the 25th of May was 
ratified in the Senate by a vote of thirty-three to five.* Although 
strenuous efforts had been made to prevent the consummation of this 
act by several partisan leaders and members of the public press, yet 
there can be little doubt that the great body of the Mexican nation 
rejoiced at the prospect of peace. Information of the ratification was 
received in Mexico with the ringing of bells, discharging of fireworks, 
and other manifestations of satisfaction. 

REAT preparations were made for the 
immediate withdrawal of the American 
troops from Mexico, in accordance with 
the spirit of the treaty. 'Ihe duty of 
superintending the necessary arrange- 
ments devolved on General Butler, 
who, in consequence of the suspension 
of General Scott, had been appointed 
by the president to the chief command. 
The general-ift-chief had left the city 
of Mexico on the 22d of April, reached 
Vera Cruz on the 30th, and immediately 
embarked for the United States. Mr. Sevier left the capital on the 
12th of June, and arrived at Vera Cruz about the 20th, superintend- 
ing in his route, the marching of the troops towards that city. The 
army left Vera Cruz by detachments, the greater part arriving in 
New Orleans before the middle of June. 




* See Appendix. 



APPENDIX. 



TREATY 



Op Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement, between the United States 
of America, and the Mexican Republic, concluded at Guadalupe Hidalgo, 
on the Second Day of February, with Amendments bt the Amehican 
Senate, March 10th, 1848, and bt the Mexican Senate, Mat 25th, 1848. 



THE TREATY. 

In the name of Almighty God : 

The United States of America and the United Mexican States, animated by a sincere 
desire to put an end to the calamities of the war which unhappily exists between the two 
republics, and to establish on a solid basis relations of peace and friendship, which shall 
confer reciprocal benefits on the citizens of both, and assure the concord, harmony, and 
mutual confidence wherein the two people should live as good neighbours, have, for that 
purpose, appointed their respective plenipotentiaries ; that is to say, the President of the 
United States has appointed N. P. Trist, a citizen of the United States, and the President 
of the Mexican republic has appointed Don Louis Gonzaga Cuevas, Don Bernardo Conto, 
and Don Miguel Atristain, citizens of the said republic, who, after a reciprocal communi- 
cation of their respective powers, have, under the protection of Almighty God, the author 
of peace, arranged, agreed upon, and signed the following treaty of peace, friendship, 
limits, and settlement, between the United States of America and the Mexican republic 

Art. I. — There shall be a firm and universal peace between the United States of 
America and the Mexican republic, and between their respective countries, territories, 
cities, towns, and people, without exception of places or persons. 

Art. II. — Immediately on the signature of this treaty, a convention shall be entered 
into between a commissioner or commissioners appointed by the general-in-chief of the 
forces of the United States, and such as may be appointed by the Mexican government, 
to the end that a provisional suspension of hostilities shall take place ; and that in the 
places occupied by the said forces, constitutional order may be re-established, as regards 
the political, administrative, and judicial branches, so far as this shall be permitted by the 
circumstances of military occupation. 

Art. III. — Immediately upon the ratification of the present treaty, by the govern- 
ment of the United States, orders shall be transmitted to the commanders of their land 
and naval forces, requiring the latter (provided this treaty shall then have been ratified by 
the government of the Mexican republic) immediately to desist from blockading any 
Mexican ports ; and requiring the former (under the same condition) to commence, at 
the earliest moment practicable, withdrawing all troops of the United States then in the 
interior of the Mexican republic, to points that shall be selected by common agreement, 
at a distance from the sea-ports not exceeding thirty leagues ; and such evacuation of the 
interior of the republic shall be completed with the least possible delay : the Mexican 
government hereby binding itself to afford every facility in its power for rendering the 
same convenient to the troops, on their march, and in their new positions, and for promot- 
ing a good understanding between them and the inhabitants. In like manner, orders shall 

80 (633) 



634 APPENDIX. 

be despatched to the persons in charge of the custom-houses ut all ports occupied by the 
forces of the United States, requiring them (under the same condition) immediately to 
deliver possession of the same to the persons authorized by the Mexican government to 
receive it, together with all bonds and evidences of debt for duties on importations and on 
exportations, not yet fallen due. Moreover, a faithful and exact account shall be made 
out, showing the entire amount of all duties on imports and on exports, collected at such 
custom-houses, or elsewhere in Mexico, by authority of the United States, from and after 
the day of the ratification of this treaty by the government of the Mexican republic ; and 
also an account of the cost of collection ; and such entire amount, deducting only the cost 
of collection, shall be delivered to the Mexican government, at the city of Mexico, within 
three months after the exchange of ratifications. 

The evacuation of the capital of the Mexican republic by the troops of the United States, 
in virtue of the above stipulation, shall be completed in one month after the orders there 
stipulated for shall have been received by the commander of said troops, or sooner if 
possible. 

Art. IV. — Immediately after the exchange of ratifications of the present treaty, all 
castles, forts, territories, places and possessions, which have been taken and occupied by 
the forces of the United States during the present war, within the limits of the Mexican 
republic, as about to be established by the following article, shall be definitely restored 
to the said republic, together with all the artillery, arms, apparatus of war. munitions, and 
other public property, which were in the said castles and forts when captured, and which 
shall remain there at the time when this treaty shall be duly ratified by the government' 
of the Mexican republic. To this end, immediately upon the signature of this treaty, 
orders shall be despatched to the American officers commanding such castles and ports, 
securing against the removal or destruction of any such artillery, arms, apparatus of war, 
munitions, or other public property. The city of Mexico, within the inner line of intrench- 
ments, surrounding the said city, is comprehended in the above stipulations, as regards 
the restoration of artillery, apparatus of war, &c. 

The final evacuation of the territory of the Mexican republic by the forces of the United 
States, shall be completed in three months from the said exchange of ratifications, or sooner 
if possible : the Mexican republic hereby engaging, as in the foregoing article, to use all 
means in its power for facilitating such evacuation, and rendering it convenient to the 
troops, and for promoting a good understanding between them and the inhabitants. 

If, however, the ratification of this treaty by both parties should not take place in time 
to allow the embarkation of the troops of the United States to be completed before the 
commencement of the sickly season, at the Mexican ports on the Gulf of Mexico, in such 
case a friendly arrangement shall be entered into between the general-in-chief of the said 
troops and the Mexican government, whereby healthy and otherwise suitable places, at a 
distance from the ports not exceeding thirty leagues, shall be designated for the residence 
of such troops as may not yet have embarked, until the return of the healthy season. 
And the space of time here referred to as comprehending the sickly season, shall be under- 
stood to extend from the first day of May to the first day of November. 

All prisoners of war taken on either side, on land or on sea, shall be restored as soon 
as practicable after the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty. It is also agreed that 
if any Mexicans should now be held as captives by any savage tribe within the limits of 
the United States, as about to be established by the following article, the government 01 
the said United States will exact the release of such captives, and cause them to be 
restored to their country. 

Aht. V. — The boundary line between the two republics shall commence in the Gulf 
of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, otherwise 
called Rio Bravo del Norte, or opposite the mouth of its deepest branch, if it should have 
more than one branch emptying directly into the sea ; from thence up the middle of that 
river, following the deepest channel, where it has more than one, to the point where 
strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico ; thence, westwardly, along the whole 
southern boundary of New Mexico (which runs north of the town called Paso) to its 
western termination ; thence northward along the western line of New Mexico, until it 
intersects the first branch of the river Gila; (or if it should not intersect any branch of 
that river, then to the point on the said line nearest to such branch, and thence in a direct 
line to the same ;) thence down the middle of the said branch and of the said river, until 
it empties into the Rio Colorado ; thence across the Rio Colorado, following the division 
line between Upper and Lower California, to the Pacific ocean. 

The southern and western limits of New Mexico, mentioned in this article, are those 
laid down in the map, entitled " Map of the United Mexican States, as organized and 
defined by various acts of the Congress of said republic, and constructed according to 



APPENDIX. 635 

the best authorities. Revised edition. Published at New York, in 1847, by J. Distur- 
Tie//." Of which map a copy is added to this treaty, bearing the signatures and seals of 
the undersigned plenipotentiaries. And in order to preclude all difficulty in tracing upon 
the ground the limit separating Upper from Lower California, it is agreed that the said 
limit shall consist of a straight line, drawn from the middle of the Rio Gila, where it unites 
with the Colorado, to a point on the coast of the Pacific ocean — distant one marine league 
due south of the southernmost point of the port of San Diego, according to the plan of 
said port, made in the year 1782, by Don Juan Pantojer, second sailingmaster of the 
Spanish fleet, and published at Madrid in the year 1802, in the atlas to the voyage of 
the schooners Sutil and Mexicana, of which plan a copy is hereunto added, signed and 
sealed by the respective plenipotentiaries. 

In order to designate the boundary line with due precision, upon authoritative maps, 
and to establish on the ground landmarks which shall show the limits of both republics, 
as described in the present article, the two governments shall each appoint a commissioner 
and a surveyor, who, before the expiration of one year from the date of the exchange of 
ratification of this treaty, shall meet at the port of San Diego, and proceed to run and 
mark the said boundary in its whole course to the mouth of the Rio Bravo del Norte. 
They shall keep journals and make out plans of their operations ; and the result agreed 
upon by them, shall be deemed a part of this treaty, and shall have the same force as if it 
were inserted therein. The two governments will amicably agree regarding what may be 
necessary to these persons, and also as to their respective escorts, should such be necessary. 

The boundary line established by this article shall be religiously respected by each of 
the two republics, and no change shall ever be made therein, except by the express and 
free consent of both nations, lawfully given by the general government of each, in con- 
formity with its own constitution. 

Art. VI. — The vessels and citizens of the United States shall, in all time, have a free 
and uninterrupted passage by the Gulf of California, and by the river Colorado, below its 
confluence with the Gila, to and from their possessions situated north of the boundary line 
defined in the preceding article ; it being understood that this passage is to be by navi- 
gating the Gulf of California, and the river Colorado; and not by land, without the 
express consent of the Mexican government. 

If, by the examinations that may be made, it should be ascertained to be practicable and 
advantageous to construct a road, canal, or railway, which should, in whole or in part, 
run upon the river Gila, or upon its right or its left bank, within the space of one marine 
league from either margin of the river, the governments of both republics will form an 
agreement regarding its construction, in order that it may serve equally for the use and 
advantage of both countries. 

Aht. VII. — The river Gila, and the part of the Del Norte lying below the southern 
boundary of New Mexico, being, agreeably to the fifth article, divided in the middle be- 
tween the two republics, the navigation of the Gila and of the Bravo, below said boundary, 
shall be free and common to the vessels and citizens of both countries ; and neither shall, 
without the consent of the other, construct any work that may impede or interrupt, in 
whole or in part, the exercise of this right — not even for the purpose of favouring new 
methods of navigation. Nor shall any tax or contribution, under any denomination or 
title, be levied upon vessels, or persons navigating the same, or upon merchandise, or 
effects, transported thereon, except in the case of landing upon one of their shores. If, for 
the purpose of making the said rivers navigable, or for maintaining them in such state, it 
should be necessary or advantageous to establish any tax or contribution, this shall not be 
done without the consent of both governments. 

The stipulations contained in the present article shall not impair the territorial rights 
of either republic, within its established limits. 

Art. VIII Mexicans now established in territories previously belonging to Mexico, 

and which remain, for the future, within the limits of the United States, as defined by the 
present treaty, shall be free to continue where they now reside, or to remove, at any time, 
to the Mexican republic, retaining the property which they possess in the said territories, 
or disposing thereof, and removing the proceeds wherever they please, without their being 
subjected, on this account, to any contribution, or tax, or charge, whatever. 

Those who shall prefer to remain in said territories, may either retain the title and rights 
of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens of the United States. But they shall be 
under the obligation to make their selection within one year from the date of the exchange 
of ratifications of this treaty ; and those who shall remain in the said territories, after the 
expiration of that year, without having declared their intention to retain the character of 
Mexicans, shall be considered to have elected to become citizens of the United States. 

In the said territories, property of every kind, now belonging to Mexicans not esta- 



636 APPENDIX. 

blished there, shall be inviolably respected. The present owners, the heirs of these, and 
all Mexicans who may hereafter acquire said property by contract, shall enjoy with respect 
to it, guarantees equally ample as if the same belonged to citizens of the United States. 

Aht. IX. — [This article is expunged, and in its stead the Senate has adopted and 
inserted substantially the third article of the treaty with France, of 1803, for the cession of 
Louisiana, to the effect that inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the 
Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as Congress shall determine, according to 
the principles of the federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, 
and immunities of citizens of the United States ,- and in the mean time, they shall be 
maintained and protected in the full enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the reli' 
gion which they profess.] 

Art. X — (expunged.) 

Art. XI. — Considering that a great part of the territories which, by the present treaty, 
are to be comprehended for the future within the limits of the United States, is now occu- 
pied by savage tribes who will hereafter be under the control of the government of the 
United States, and whose incursions within the territory of Mexico would be prejudicial 
in the extreme, it is solemnly agreed that all such incursions shall be forcibly restrained 
by the government of the United States, whensoever this may be necessary ; and that 
when they cannot be prevented, they shall be punished by the said government, and satis- 
faction for the same shall be exacted — all in the same way, and with equal diligence and 
energy, as if the same incursions were committed within its own territory, against its own 
citizens. 

It shall not be lawful, under any pretext whatever, for any inhabitant of the United 
States to purchase or acquire any Mexican, or any foreigner residing in Mexico, who may 
have been captured by Indians inhabiting the territory of either of the two republics, nor 
to purchase or acquire horses, mules, cattle, or property of any kind, stolen within Mexi- 
can territory by such Indians : nor to provide such Indians with fire-arms or ammunition, 
by sale or otherwise. 

And in the event of any person or persons captured within Mexican territory by Indians, 
being carried into the territory of the United States, the government of the latter engages 
and binds itself in the most solemn manner, so soon as it shall know of such captives be- 
ing within its territory, and shall be able to do so, through the faithful exercise of its 
influence and power, to rescue them and return them to their country, or deliver them to 
the agent or representative of the Mexican government. The Mexican authorities will, 
as far as practicable, give to the government of the United States notice of such captures ; 
and its agents shall pay the expenses incurred in the maintenance and transmission of the 
rescued captives ; who, in the mean time, shall be treated with the utmost hospitality by 
the American authorities at the place where they may be. But if the government of the 
United States, before receiving such notice from Mexico, should obtain intelligence, through 
any other channel, of the existence of Mexican captives within its territory, it will proceed 
forthwith to effect their release and delivery to the Mexican agent, as above stipulated. 

For the purpose of giving to these stipulations the fullest possible efficacy, thereby 
affording the security and redress demanded by their true spirit and intent, the government 
cf the United States will now and hereafter pass, without unnecessary delay, and always 
vigilantly enforce, such laws as the nature of the subject may require. And finally, the 
sacredness of this obligation shall never be lost sight of by the said government when pro- 
viding for the removal of Indians from any portion of said territories, or for its being 
settled by the citizens of the United States ; but, on the contrary, special care then shall be 
taken not to place its Indian occupants under the necessity of seeking new homes, by com- 
mitting those invasions which the United States have solemnly obliged themselves to restrain. 

Art. XII. — In consideration of the extension acquired by the boundaries of the United 
States, as defined in the fifth article of the present treaty, the government of the United 
States engages to pay to that of the Mexican republic the sum of fifteen millions of dollars, 
in the one or the other of the two modes below specified. 

[N. B. Two modes of payment are here set forth in the treaty. The latter being by 
annual instalments of three millions of dollars, was accepted by the Mexican government.] 

Art. XIII. — The United States engage, moreover, to assume and pay to the claimants 
all the amounts now due them, and those hereafter to become due, by reason of the claims 
already liquidated and decided against the Mexican republic, under the conventions be- 
tween the two republics severally concluded on the 11th day of April, eighteen hundred 
and thirty-nine, and on the 30th day of January, eighteen hundred and forty-three; so 
that the Mexican republic shall be absolutely exempt for the future, from all expense 
whatever on account of the said claims. 

Art. XIV. — The United States do furthermore discharge the Mexican republic from all 



A.PPENDIX. 637 

claims of citizens of the United States, not heretofore decided against the Mexican govern- 
ment, which may have arisen previously to the date of the signature of this treaty ; which 
discharge shall be final and perpetual, whether the said claims be rejected or be allowed 
by the board of commissioners provided for in the following article, and whatever shall be 
the total amount of those allowed. 

Art. XV. — The United States, exonerating Mexico from all demands on account of the 
claims of their citizens mentioned in the preceding article, and considering them entirely 
and for ever cancelled, whatever their amount may be, undertake to make satisfaction for 
the same, to an amount not exceeding three and one quarter millions of dollars. To 
ascertain the validity and amount of those claims, a board of commissioners shall be esta- 
blished by the government of the United States, whose awards shall be final and conclusive ; 
provided, that in deciding upon the validity of each claim, the board shall be guided and 
governed by the principles and rules of decision prescribed by the first and fifth articles 
of the unratified convention, concluded at the city of Mexico on the twentieth day of No- 
vember, one thousand eight hundred and forty-three ; and in no case shall an award be 
made in favour of any claim not embraced by these principles and rules. 

If, in the opinion of the said board of commissioners, or of the claimants, any books, 
records, or documents in the possession or power of the government of the Mexican 
republic, shall be deemed necessary to the just decision of any claim, the commissioners, 
or the claimants through them, shall within such period as Congress may designate, make 
an application in writing for the same, addressed to the Mexican minister for foreign 
affairs, to be transmitted by the secretary of state of the United States; and the Mexi- 
can government engages, at the earliest possible moment after the receipt of such demand, 
to cause any of the books, records, or documents, so specified, which shall be in their 
possession or power (or authenticated copies or extracts of the same) to be transmitted to 
the said secretary of state, who shall immediately deliver them over to the said board of 
commissioners ; Provided, that no such application shall be made by, or at the instance of, 
any claimant, until the facts which it is expected to prove by such books, records, or docu- 
ments, shall have been stated under oath or affirmation. 

Art. XVI. — Each of the contracting parties reserves to itself the entire right to fortify 
whatever point within its territory it may judge proper so to fortify, for its security. 

Art. XVII. — The treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, concluded at the city of 
Mexico on the 5th day of April, A. D. 1831, between the United States of America and 
the United Mexican States, except the additional article, and except so far as the stipu- 
lations of the said treaty may not be incompatible with any stipulation contained in the 
present treaty, is hereby revived for the period of eight years from the day of the exchange 
of ratifications of this treaty, with the same force and virtue as if incorporated therein; it 
being understood that each of the contracting parties reserves to itself the right, at any 
time after the said period of eight years shall have expired, to terminate the same by giving 
one year's notice of such intention to the other party. 

Art. XVIII. — All supplies whatever for troops of the United States in Mexico, arriving 
at ports in the occupation of such troops previous to the final evacuation thereof, although 
subsequently to the restoration of the custom-houses at such ports, shall be entirely exempt 
from duties and charges of any kind ; the government of the United States hereby engaging 
and pledging its faith to establish, and vigilantly to enforce, all possible guards for securing 
the revenue of Mexico, by preventing the importation, under cover of this stipulation, of 
any articles other than such, both in kind and in quality, as shall really be wanted for the 
use and consumption of the forces of the United States during the time they may remain 
in Mexico. To this end, it shall be the duty of all officers and agents of the United States 
to denounce to the Mexican authorities at the respective ports any attempts at a fraudulent 
abuse of this stipulation which they may know of or may have reason to suspect, and to give 
to such authorities all the aid in their power with regard thereto ; and every such attempt, 
when duly proved and established by sentence of a competent tribunal, shall be punished 
by the confiscation of the property so attempted to be fraudulently introduced. 

Art. XIX. — With respect to all merchandise, effects, and property whatsoever, im- 
ported into ports of Mexico whilst in the occupation of the forces of the United States, 
whether by citizens of either republic, or by citizens or subjects of any neutral nation, the 
following rules shall be observed : 

1. All such merchandise, effects, and property, if imported previously to the restoration 
of the custom-houses to the Mexican authorities, as stipulated for in the third article of 
this treaty, shall be exempt from confiscation, although the importation of the same be 
prohibited by the Mexican tariff. 

2. The same perfect exemption shall be enjoyed by all such merchandise, effects, and 
property, imported subsequently to the restoration of the custom-houses, and previously to 

3H 



638 APPENDIX. 

the sixty days fixed in the following article for the coming into force of the Mexican tariff, 
at such ports respectively; the said merchandise, effects, and property, being, however, at 
the time of their importation, subject to the payment of duties, as provided for in the said 
following article. 

3. All merchandise, effects, and property described in the two rules foregoing shall, 
during their continuance at the place of importation, or upon their leaving such place for 
the interior, be exempt from all duty, tax, or impost of every kind, under whatsoever title 
or denomination. Nor shall they be there subjected to any charge whatsoever upon the 
sale thereof. 

4. All merchandise, effects, and property, described in the first and second rules, which 
shall have been removed to any place in the interior whilst such place was in the occupa- 
tion of the forces of the United States, shall, during their continuance therein, be exempt 
from all tax upon the sale or consumption thereof, and from every kind of impost or con- 
tribution, under whatsoever title or denomination. 

5. But if any merchandise, effects, or property, described in the first and second rules, 
shall be removed to any place not occupied at the time by the forces of the United States, 
they shall, upon their introduction into such place, or upon their sale or consumption 
there, be subject to the same duties which, under the Mexican laws, they would be re- 
quired to pay in such cases if they had been imported in time of peace, through the mari- 
time custom-houses, and had there paid the duties conformably with the Mexican tariff. 

6. The owners of all merchandise, effects, or property described in the first and second 
rules, and existing in any port of Mexico, shall have the right to reship the same, exempt 
from all tax, impost, or contribution whatever. 

With respect to the metals, or other property, exported from any Mexican port whilst 
in the occupation of the forces of the United States, and previously to the restoration of the 
custom-house at such port, no person shall be required by the Mexican authorities, whether 
general or state, to pay any tax, duty, or contribution upon any such exportation, or in 
any manner to account for the same to the said authorities. 

Art. XX. — Through consideration for the interests of commerce generally, it is agreed, 
that if less than sixty days should elapse between the date of the signature of this treaty 
and the restoration of the custom-houses, conformably with the stipulation in the third 
article, in such case all merchandise, effects, and property whatsoever, arriving at the 
Mexican ports after the restoration of the said custom-houses, and previously to the expira- 
tion of sixty days after the day of the signature of this treaty, shall be admitted to entry ; 
and no other duties shall be levied thereon than the duties established by the tariff found 
in force at such custom-houses at the time of the restoration of the same. And to all such 
merchandise, effects, and property, the rules established by the preceding article shall 
apply. 

Art. XXI. — If, unhappily, any disagreement should hereafter arise between the govern- 
ments of the two republics, whether with respect to the interpretation of any stipulation in 
this treaty, or with respect to any other particular concerning the political or commercial 
relations of the two nations, the said governments, in the name of those nations, do 
promise to each other that they will endeavour, in the most sincere and earnest 
manner, to settle the differences so arising, and to preserve the state of peace and 
friendship in which the two countries are now placing themselves ; using, for this end, 
mutual representations and pacific negotiations. And if, by these means, they should 
not be enabled to come to an agreement, a resort shall not, on this account, be had 
to reprisals, aggression, or hostility of any kind, by the one republic against the other, until 
the government of that which deems itself aggrieved shall have maturely considered, in 
the spirit of peace and good neighbourship, whether it would not be better that such differ- 
ence should be settled by the arbitration of commissioners appointed on each side, or by 
that of a friendly nation. And should such course be proposed by either party, it shall be 
acceded to by the other, unless deemed by it altogether incompatible with the nature of 
the difference, or the circumstances of the case. 

Art. XXII. — If (which is not to be expected, and which God forbid !) war shall unhap- 
pily break out between the two republics, they do now, with a view to such calamity, 
solemnly pledge themselves to each other and to the world, to observe the following rules, 
absolutely, where the nature of the subject permits, and as closely as possible in all cases 
where such absolute observance shall be impossible. 

1. The merchants of either republic then residing in the other shall be allowed to remain 
twelve months, (for those dwelling in the interior,) and six months (for those dwelling at 
the seaports,) to collect their debts and settle their affairs ; during which periods, they shall 
enjoy the same protection, and be on the same footing, in all respects, as the citizens or 
subjects of the most friendly nations ; and, at the expiration thereof, or at any time before, 



APPENDIX. 639 

they shall have full liberty to depart, carrying off all their effects without molestation or 
hindrance; conforming therein to the same laws which the citizens or subjects of the most 
friendly nations are required to conform to. Upon the entrance of the armies of either 
nation into the territories of the other, women and children, ecclesiastics, scholars of every 
faculty, cultivators of the earth, merchants, artisans, manufacturers, and fishermen, un- 
armed and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages, or places, and in general all persons 
whose occupations are for the common subsistence and benefit of mankind, shall be allowed 
to continue their respective employments unmolested in their persons. Nor shall their 
houses or goods be burnt or otherwise destroyed, nor their cattle taken, nor their fields 
wasted, by the armed force into whose power, by the events of war, they may happen to 
fall ; but if the necessity arise to take any thing from them for the use of such armed force, 
the same shall be paid for at an equitable price. All churches, hospitals, schools, colleges, 
libraries, and other establishments, for charitable and beneficent purposes, shall be respected, 
and all persons connected with the same, protected in the discharge of their duties, and the 
pursuit of their vocations. 

2. In order that the fate of prisoners of war may be alleviated, all such practices as 
those of sending them into distant, inclement, or unwholesome districts, or crowding them 
into close and noxious places, shall be studiously avoided. They shall not be confined in 
dungeons, prison-ships, or prisons, nor be put in irons, or bound, or otherwise restrained in the 
use of their limbs. The officers shall enjoy liberty on their paroles, within convenient dis- 
tricts, and have comfortable quarters; and the common soldier shall be disposed in can- 
tonments, open and extensive enough for air and exercise, and lodged in barracks as 
roomy and good as are provided by the party in whose power they are for its own troops. 
But if any officer shall break his parole by leaving the district so assigned him, or any 
other prisoner shall escape from the limits of his cantonment, after they shall have been 
designated to him, such individual, officer, or other prisoner, shall forfeit so much of the 
benefit of this article as provides for his liberty on parole or in cantonment. And if an 
officer so breaking his parole, or any common soldier so escaping from the limits assigned 
him, shall afterwards be found in arms, previously to his being regularly exchanged, the 
person so offending shall be dealt with according to the established laws of war. The 
officers shall be daily furnished by the party in whose power they are, with as many 
rations, and of the same articles, as are allowed, either in kind or by commutation, to 
officers of equal rank in its own army ; and all others shall be daily furnished with such 
ration as is allowed to a common soldier in its own service : the value of all which sup- 
plies shall, at the close of the war, or at periods to be agreed upon between the respective 
commanders, be paid by the other party, on a mutual adjustment of accounts for the sub- 
sistence of prisoners ; and such accounts shall not be mingled with or set off against any 
others, nor the balance due on them be withheld, as a compensation or reprisal for any 
cause whatever, real or pretended. Each party shall be allowed to keep a commissary of 
prisoners, appointed by itself, with every cantonment of prisoners, in possession of the 
other ; which commissary shall see the prisoners as often as he pleases ; shall be allowed 
to receive, exempt from all duties or taxes, and to distribute, whatever comforts may be 
sent to them by their friends ; and shall be free to transmit his reports in open letters to 
the party by whom he is employed. 

And it is declared that neither the pretence that war dissolves all treaties, nor any other 
whatever, shall be considered as annulling or suspending the solemn covenant contained 
in this article. On the contrary, the state of war is precisely that for which it is provided ; 
and during which, its stipulations are to be as sacredly observed as the most acknowledged 
obligations under the law of nature or nations. 

Art. XXIII. — This treaty shall be ratified by the President of the United States of 
America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof; and by the President 
of the Mexican republic, with the previous approbation of its general Congress ; and the 
ratifications shall be exchanged in the city of Washington, in four months from the date 
of the signature hereof, or sooner if practicable. 

In faith whereof, we, the respective plenipotentiaries, have signed this treaty of peace, 
friendship, limits, and settlement; and have hereunto affixed our seals respectively. 
Done in quintuplicate, at the city of Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the second day of February, 
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight. 

N. P. TRIST, [l. s.] 

LUIS G. CUEVAS, [l. s.j 

BERNARDO CONTO, [l. s.] 

MIG. ATRISTAIN, [t s.j 



640 APPENDIX 

Additional and secret article of the treaty of peace, friendship, limits, and settlement, 
between the United States of America and the Mexican republic, signed this day by 
their respective plenipotentiaries. (Expunged.) 

In view of the possibility that the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty may, by 
the circumstances in which the Mexican republic is placed, be delayed longer than the 
term of four months fixed by its twenty-third article for the exchange of ratifications of 
the same, it is hereby agreed that such delay shall not, in any manner, affect the force 
and validity of this treaty, unless it should exceed the term of eight months, counted from 
the date of the signature thereof. 

This article is to have the same force and virtue as if inserted in the treaty to which 
this is an addition. 

In faith whereof, we, the respective plenipotentiaries, have signed this additional and 
secret article, and have hereunto affixed our seals, respectively. Done in quintuplicate at 
the city of Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the second day of February, in the year of our Lord 
©ne thousand eight hundred and forty-eight 

N. P.TRIST, [l.s.] 

LUIS G. CUEVAS, [l.s.] 

BERNARDO CONTO, [l.s.] 
MIG. ATRISTAIN, [l. ■.] 



THE END. 



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